Gender and Justice Project
Other recent work
- "Striking back," E.J. Graff, Institute Senior Researcher, The Boston Globe, September 3, 2006.
HONORING AMERICAN WORKERS long ago lost out to grilling hamburgers as the activity of choice on Labor Day. But, for those inclined to spend some of the holiday weekend considering the state of American labor, the Supreme Court has this year offered a decision that might be cause for celebration. In June, the court issued a 9-to-0 ruling in Burlington Northern v. Sheila White. In theory, the decision will make it easier to sue in federal court for workplace ``retaliation"-actions taken against employees who complain they've been discriminated against. [more]
- "Till Hardships Do All of Us Part," E.J. Graff, Institute Senior Researcher, The Boston Globe, July 25, 2006.
APPARENTLY THE 20-year mark is the Heartbreak Hill of marriage. Here at the end of my 40s, I'm seeing breakups all over my cohort. Many longtime couples (straight, lesbian, gay) are calling it quits, admitting with grief that they cannot fulfill their earnest pledges to love and care for each other lifelong. Given the intimate damage in their daily lives, they're acknowledging that -- if they're to salvage any kindness for themselves and each other (and their children) -- all that's left is the exit. [more]
- "Fighting for Fair Treatment," E.J. Graff, Institute Senior Researcher, The American Prospect Online, April 27, 2006.
.... Getting into the [Supreme Court] oral argument for Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Sheila White, though, was easy. A quick zip through the metal detector, a stop at the press office, no ID needed, and the few of us who cared about the case were waved up into the press gallery casually, like ordinary visitors. Burlington Northern v. White isn’t on anyone’s radar -- even though the decision in this case will affect hundreds of thousands of working people’s daily lives on the job. Burlington offers the court a chance, once again, to decide what Congress really meant when its 1964 Civil Rights Act Title VII, section 703, declared it “an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” In Burlington, the question was about section 704 of Title VII, in which Congress said it was also illegal for an employer to retaliate -- to “discriminate against” -- anyone who had brought a discrimination charge or testified on behalf of someone else’s charge. Otherwise, simply by bringing a discrimination charge, you could get fired. [more]- Want more details on the Burlington Northern oral argument itself, including the individual Justices' particular concerns? Click here. Reading E.J. Graff's play-by-play report may help elucidate the Supreme Court's recent decision in Burlington Northern v. White.
- "The Skinny Pink Paycheck Syndrome," Los Angeles Times, Current section, p. M3, Sunday, February 12, 2006, by Senior Institute Researcher E.J. Graff and former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy.
THE NEW YORK TIMES recently profiled San Diego's Fire Engine Company 22, almost certainly the only all-female firefighting crew in the United States. It was inspiring to read about four competent, hardworking women happily succeeding in a "man's job."
But Company 22 is the pretty side of an ugly phenomenon. Female firefighters are newsworthy only because they are incredibly rare. And they're rare because flagrant sex discrimination still keeps women out of every job that is overwhelmingly male — truck driver, construction worker, electrician, miner, bond trader, you name it. ...
- "Too Pretty a Picture,"
I steeled myself as the camera panned slowly over a vast, sprawling mine operation. I'd come to see the new Charlize Theron movie, "North Country," which is supposed to be based on a real story of sexual harassment at the Eveleth Taconite Co., in Minnesota's Iron Range. I was expecting the film to bring alive the hostile environment the women hired there in the 1970s and '80s had endured. If it was at all true to life, the movie could be rough going. But I hoped it would expose at last the persistent and pervasive war zone created by sexual harassment, a war zone that still exists in workplaces across the country to this day.
* Reader responses to "Too Pretty a Picture."
- “The Working Mommy Trap,” TomPaine.com,
- "Mothers prosecuted, punished for what they didn't do," page 4, USA Today, May 27, 2005, by Rochelle Sharpe, Institute Gender and Justice Project. The Institute's story revealed several cases of nonabusive battered women who have been convicted of failing to protect their children from death or serious injury inflicted by their abusive partners.
- “The Line on Sex,”
- "The Complete Anita Hill: The woman who nearly derailed Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination 11 years ago is now happily teaching at Brandeis - and still disclaiming credit for awakening americans to workplace sexual harassment," Boston Globe Magazine, January 19, 2003. Exclusive and lengthy profile by Institute Founding Director Florence Graves.
- "Redefining the 'Private Lives' of Public Officials," Nieman Reports, Spring 2002. Institute Founding Director Florence Graves dissects the "old guard" journalistic belief that a public official's sex life is always "private," and considers when it can be of legitimate public concern as a potential violation of law or ethical standards.
- "The Other Woman: Remember Angela Wright? Neither Do Most People. Her Testimony Might Have Changed History. If It Had Happened. A Look at How Politics Works, and Sometimes Doesn't," Washington Post, F1, October 9, 1994. Institute Founding Director Florence Graves investigated the backroom deals made to keep Angela Wright--whose testimony could have corroborated Anita Hill's--from testifying at Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearings.
- "Starr and Willey: The Untold Story," The Nation, May 17, 1999. Institute Founding Director Florence Graves’s 1999 year-long Nation magazine investigation revealed that Kathleen Willey, who accused President Clinton of sexual harassment, was in fact seeking an affair with the president, and that Willey had lied to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s own investigators, a fact he tried to keep secret.