Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel

Emily Martin

Emily Martin is Vice President and General Counsel at the National Women's Law Center, where she undertakes cross-cutting projects addressing women's health, economic security, and education and employment opportunities. She also provides in-house legal advice and representation to the Center. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Martin served as Deputy Director of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she spearheaded litigation, policy, and public education initiatives to advance the rights of women and girls, with a particular emphasis on the needs of low-income women and women of color. She also served as a law clerk for Senior Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge T.S. Ellis, III, of the Eastern District of Virginia and previously worked for the Center as a recipient of the Georgetown Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship. She has served as Vice President and President of the Fair Housing Justice Center, a non-profit organization in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Yale Law School.

Expert in: Issues Before the Courts, Platform for Progress, Treaty on the Rights of Women, Supreme Court, Voter Education, Women & the Constitution, Unemployment, Employment
  • Printer-friendly version
  • Send by email

My Take

Labor Day: A Time to Take Stock of Women’s Progress

Posted by
Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel
Liz Watson, Senior Advisor
| Posted on: September 04, 2012 at 05:12 pm

Labor Day provided a moment to take stock of how women are doing in today’s economy. For many, it’s not a pretty picture.

This might seem surprising given that during the recovery many of the occupations that have shown the most rapid growth are occupations where women hold the majority of jobs. Unfortunately, these occupations are also marked by low wages.  In fact, low-wage jobs have grown almost three times faster than middle and high-wage jobs during the recovery.

The top ten fastest-growing occupations include: retail salesperson; restaurant servers; personal and home care aides; office clerks and customer service representatives—jobs where women make up the majority of all workers. All of these are occupations that pay low wages.

In fact, there are 2.4 women for every 1 man working in occupations with median earnings for full-time work below the federal poverty threshold for a family of four. Likewise, women make up 2 out of 3 minimum wage workers. Often women’s work is synonymous with low-wage work.

Read more...
Tags: Economic Recovery, Employment, Women in the Workplace, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Minimum Wage, Employment | Add new comment

NWLC Fights for Racial Diversity in Higher Ed

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: August 15, 2012 at 02:59 pm

On Monday the National Women’s Law Center and 22 other women’s organizations urged the Supreme Court to affirm the constitutionality of UT-Austin’s race conscious admissions. The Court will hear Fisher v. UT-Austin in early October, considering the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions to forward diversity in higher education for the first time since Justices Roberts and Alito joined the Court. (Justice Kagan is recused from the case, meaning that it will be decided by the remaining eight Justices. If the Justices split 4-4, the decision below, upholding UT-Austin’s admission plan, will stand.)

UT-Austin fills most of its freshman class through its Top Ten Percent Plan, under which the top ten percent of the graduating class every Texas high school is automatically entitled to admission. The remainder of the UT-Austin class is filled based on consideration of individual students’ academic credentials and personal experiences and qualities, including, in some instances, race. As the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held last year in upholding the constitutionality of the plan, UT-Austin carefully crafted this process to comply with the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which held that consideration of race in public university admissions could properly forward the compelling interest in diversity in education. But those challenging UT-Austin’s consideration of race argue that the Top Ten Percent plan produces sufficient racial diversity at UT-Austin and that the university thus does not have a compelling interest justifying its consideration of race as a factor in filling the remainder of its entering class.

Read more...
Tags: Diversity, Issues Before the Courts, Supreme Court, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

Will Unmarried Women Stand Up in November?

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: August 07, 2012 at 03:33 pm

The New York Times today reports that single women’s votes may be key to this year’s presidential election. “Single women are one of the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups — there are 1.8 million more now than just two years ago,” the Times explains. “They make up a quarter of the voting-age population nationally, and even more in several swing states, including Nevada.” But single women have traditionally registered and turned out to vote at relatively low rates, which means their full political power remains untapped.

It’s time to change that. The results of the presidential, congressional, and state elections this year will shape single women’s lives in a host of ways. The elections will determine whether single mothers receive the supports they need to make ends meet. They will determine whether women’s insurance covers contraception without a co-pay. The elections will determine whether the economy will work for single women who have experienced extremely high rates of unemployment through the recession and recovery and whether policymakers will prioritize fair pay for women.

Read more...
Tags: Birth Control/Contraceptives, Economy, Equal Pay, Voter Education, Voter Education, A Women's Agenda | Add new comment

The Most Important Question We'll Ask All Year

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: August 06, 2012 at 02:54 pm

Are you registered?
Register to Vote
Please use our simple online voter registration tool to get started today!
Register to Vote

It's a simple question: are you registered to vote?

Are you sure?

Most people don't realize it but, depending on the laws in your state, these are just a few of the life-changes that might knock you off the voter roll and force you to re-register:

  • Getting married and changing your name
  • Moving, even within the same city or town
  • Going to college
  • Going through a mortgage foreclosure

Make sure your voice is heard — when women vote, leaders listen! Please use our simple online voter registration tool (offered with Rock The Vote) to start the registration process. If you're not registered, the system will make sure you get the right form mailed to you, already filled out! If it turns out that you are already registered and use the tool, it's no problem at all — the system will simply verify that you're on the voter rolls already.

Read more...
Tags: Voter Education, Voter Education | Add new comment

Has your Representative stood up for pregnant workers?

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: July 11, 2012 at 04:15 pm

Help Close the
Pregnancy Loophole!
Help close the pregnancy loophole!
Tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
Take Action

We are so close! So far, over eighty-eight Representatives have co-sponsored the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. This bill would ensure that pregnant women are treated fairly on the job.

Help us reach 100 co-sponsors by the end of the week by emailing your Representative today! The more co-sponsors on this bill, the more likely it is to get moving!

So what's the problem? Courts have created a pregnancy loophole that allows many employers to refuse to accommodate even simple requests to help workers maintain healthy pregnancies. Pregnant women have been fired because they asked to avoid heavy lifting, or to stay off ladders, or to sit on a stool instead of standing at a cash register all day.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would change this.

Read more...
Tags: House of Representatives, Pregnancy, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), Pregnancy, Parenting, and the Workplace, Employment | Add new comment