Inside Higher Ed: Vassar Agrees to Settle Pay Equity Class Action Suit for $5M

August 3. 2026

An Inside Higher Ed article about Vassar College’s agreement to settle our $5 million class-action pay discrimination lawsuit supporting 84 women professors quotes Litigation Director Catherine Bendor:

“This step reflects years of efforts by women faculty members at Vassar, first privately and then in court, to get Vassar to eliminate a gender-based pay gap of which the college has long been aware,” Catherine Bendor, director of litigation at Equal Rights Advocates and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said in the release. “Our clients worked hard to achieve justice not only for themselves and their colleagues, but for all future women professors. We hope the terms of the proposed settlement, and the experience of this lawsuit, will result in Vassar appropriately recognizing the contributions of all of its women faculty.”

Read the article.