Our Founders
With 50+ years of defending gender rights, we honor the vision of our founding sisters.
From an idea in a women’s lounge at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, these women built a fierce public interest nonprofit practice to fight gender discrimination in the workplace and in education.
The Hon. Nancy Davis, Wendy Williams, and Mary Dunlap were fierce Berkeley Law alumni who came together to push gender equity forward through the law. (Also picture above is Joan Graff, one of ERA’s founding staff members.) They drew inspiration from many mentors, including Berkeley Law Professor Herma Hill Kay (1934 – 2017) and Stanford Law Professor Barbara Babcock (1931-2020), who helped develop ERA’s early legal work combatting sex discrimination at work and school.
Professor Barbara Babcock passed away earlier this year and we honor her tremendous life and legacy.