Top 10 Gender Justice Moments of 2025

I’ll state the obvious: this was a tough year for gender justice. But with your support, the ERA team was able to successfully defend our communities’ rights, and even advance rights on multiple fronts.

I’m very proud to share these accomplishments with you. Let’s keep protecting gender, racial, and economic justice together in 2026.

Defend against federal attacks

Here are our Top 10 Gender Justice Moments of 2025:

1.  Standing up to federal attacks—together

• All year long, you helped us shield our communities from federal attacks with grassroots campaigns. You and hundreds of ERA supporters took action opposing Trump nominees, holding Congress accountable, defending longstanding federal agencies that protect our rights, and more. (You can still take action with us here!)

2.  9 new state laws protecting women, immigrants, trans people

• As part of our Stronger California agenda, the new laws will protect medical abortion (AB 260); help keep ICE out of schools (AB 49); advance pay equality (SB 642); expand deadlines for filing sexual assault claims (AB 250); make California a Transgender State of Refuge (SB 497); expand paid family leave to “chosen” family, and more. The laws have a national impact, too: they lay the groundwork for other states to replicate these same defenses.

3.  Protecting immigrant women workers

• As ICE raided our streets, ERA stood with immigrant women workers, supporting an important sexual harassment case with an amicus brief defending women working in a tortilla factory. If successful, the case would affirm protections for women in manufacturing and industrial settings,where male-dominated work environments with inadequate reporting structures can exacerbate women’s fear of speaking out—especially immigrant workers.

4.  Justice for San Francisco Conservatory of Music student survivor

• In a year when the federal government condoned sexual violence and decimated agencies defending student rights, we fought harder than ever to get justice for survivors. Just 3 weeks ago, we won a case representing a student survivor of sexual violence at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As part of the settlement, ERA will help rewrite the school’s sexual violence policies and help ensure compliance for years to come.

5.  ERA’s wage justice laws spark a national reform revolution

• It’s more important than ever for us to honor our successes. This year we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the ERA-led passage of the groundbreaking California Fair Pay Act. Since its passage, this innovative law set the stage for 20+ states to pass similar laws, putting $500 million back into the pocket of women workers. Since 2025, ERA has passed seven more pay equity laws, requiring the posting of salary ranges, pay data collection, and reporting. As a result, one in four working women in America now benefit from the posting of salary ranges. Our latest win? ERA celebrates passage in 2025 a bill (SB 642) explicitly extending pay equity protections to trans and nonbinary workers.

6.  Saving funding for women in male-dominated fields

• When the Dept. of Labor threatened to cut its WANTO (Women in Apprenticeships and Nontraditional Occupations) grant program, we led a grassroots campaign with Tradeswomen Taskforce partners to successfully save the funding. Then, when the DOL refused to distribute the funds, our Where’s WANTO? campaign pressured them into releasing the grants the day before they were set to expire.

7.  Helping women get into high-paying trades careers

• Our newly launched Infrastructure Pathways Project helps move women from underpaid jobs into high-paying, stable, union-protected construction careers, while also addressing a national shortage of skilled trades workers. The project supports women, people of color, and others historically excluded from these family-sustaining careers that don’t require secondary education.

8.  Defending law firm DEI programs

• Taking a stand against political intimidation and executive overreach, we joined partner organizations in challenging the Trump Administration’s requests for extensive reports from 20 top law firms about their DEI programs. We called out this attempt to invert the EEOC’s very purpose by intimidating employers into abandoning efforts that support workplace fairness.

9.  Transforming national headlines about women and worker power

• As the Trump Administration weaponized the language we use to defend communities, and conservatives waged war on women workers, ERA leaders and attorneys reclaimed the national narrative with our values. We guided conversations with interviews about federal attacks on trans people (CNN and The New York Times), the state of the #MeToo movement (The New Yorker and Rolling Stone), conservative attempts to push women out of the workforce (Ms. Magazine), and more. Read more of our takes here.

10.  Building feminist power

• On the heels of our national Feminist Power Rising Summit in Washington D.C., we gathered with supporters at our annual Gala to discuss movement strategies and fortify each other for battles ahead, hearing from New York Attorney General Letitia James, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, Rep. Lateefah Simon, Former EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows, and more. Check out event photos, and get involved with next year’s event.