The ACLU does know how to talk about women

The ACLU website, surprisingly, has a section for women’s rights.

A look back at history shows that women have made great strides in the fight for equality, including women’s suffrage and inroads in equal opportunity in the workplace and education. 

Despite the tremendous progress made in the struggle for gender equality, women still face violence, discrimination, and institutional barriers to equal participation in society. 

Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project pushes for change and systemic reform in institutions that perpetuate discrimination against women, focusing its work in the areas of employment, violence against women, and education.  

I wonder if they’ll be updating the wording.

In the employment realm, laws and workplace policies that exclude women from certain job sectors and allow them to be forced out of the workplace when they become pregnant or return to work after having a baby cause persistent disparities in women’s income, wealth, and economic security. 

Notice what that doesn’t say. It doesn’t say “laws and workplace policies that exclude people from certain job sectors and allow them to be forced out of the workplace when they become pregnant or return to work after having a baby cause persistent disparities in people’s income, wealth, and economic security.” It’s interesting that the ACLU as a whole is allowed to talk about women but the Twitter account is not.

Survivors of gender-based violence face discrimination when police, schools, landlords, and other institutions fail to adequately address and prevent violence and also when laws and policies penalize them, impeding the ability of women and girls to live safely and with dignity.

The ACLU should study its own page.

Under Current Issues we get Pregnancy and Parenting Discrimination. Again, no move to replace “women” with “people.”

Firing women because they are pregnant, or treating pregnant workers worse than other workers who are also temporarily unable to perform some aspects of a job, has been illegal since 1978, when Congress enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. But employers still do it, and, unfortunately, some courts have upheld these practices when employers come up with a “pregnancy-blind” reason to leave pregnant workers out in the cold. When women are pushed out of the workplace, they lose important income and benefits, contributing to a gender wealth gap between men and women. After they give birth, women workers are the targets of discrimination if they need to pump breast milk to remain on the job. The ACLU has long fought back against these discriminatory practices in the courts and legislatures.

They do say “pregnant workers” twice but they say “women” four times so I’ll not gripe.

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