Tanya Senanayake, Fellow

Tanya D. Senanayake is a Fellow for Education and Employment at the National Women's Law Center, where she works to promote the rights of women in the workplace. She is a graduate of Yale University and the New York University School of Law, where she was awarded the Vanderbilt Medal and the Public Service Graduation Prize and served as Senior Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review. Additionally, Ms. Senanayake was a Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Fellow with the New York City Bar Association, where she worked on civil rights and access to justice issues with the Bar Association’s Civil Rights Committee and the City Bar Justice Center. During law school, Ms. Senanayake was a summer associate at Outten & Golden LLP and interned with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York (Civil Division), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the New York Legal Assistance Group (Special Litigation Unit).

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My Take

Dukes v. Wal-Mart: The Fight for Equal Pay Continues with Regional Lawsuits

Posted by Tanya Senanayake, Fellow | Posted on: October 28, 2011 at 05:11 pm

The Supreme Court earlier this year prevented female Wal-Mart employees from forming a national class to enforce their rights against the retail giant. Despite evidence that female employees throughout the nation earned less than similarly situated male employees and were less likely to be promoted, and that Wal-Mart’s corporate policies and practices allowed for managers to use blatant sex stereotyping to make decisions about pay and promotions, the ruling prevented the women from having their case heard on the merits. Now, these women have changed their strategy to get their day in court and vindicate their rights to equal opportunity in the workplace.

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Tags: Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Equal Pay, Wal-Mart, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

Update: Comments on the DOL’s Proposed Data Tool

Posted by Tanya Senanayake, Fellow | Posted on: October 12, 2011 at 03:15 pm

Yesterday we submitted comments to the Department of Labor regarding its proposal for a new compensation data collection tool. You can read our comments here.

This tool would allow the Department of Labor to collect compensation data from federal contractors in order to identify pay disparities and potential discrimination. One-fourth of our labor force works for federal contractors. But it’s increasingly difficult for workers to identify pay discrimination and enforce their rights under antidiscrimination laws. Over 61% of employers prohibit or strongly discourage employees from sharing wage information, leaving workers unaware of significant pay disparities. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has drastically increased the obstacles that workers must surmount to enforce their statutory rights. Last, loopholes in equal pay laws and the failure of the Paycheck Fairness Act to pass the Senate make it easier for many employers to avoid antidiscrimination obligations.    

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Tags: Department of Labor, Employment, Equal Pay, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

The Wage Gap: Women Still Make Less Than Men

Posted by Tanya Senanayake, Fellow | Posted on: September 13, 2011 at 01:57 pm

Women have supported families; entered formerly male-only institutions and workplaces; and demanded better working conditions and pay, facilitated by a growing societal appreciation for gender equality. The insidious undercurrent to this progress, unfortunately, is our nation's persistent wage gap. Women still make less than men.

Data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that, on average, a female worker still makes only 77 cents for each dollar earned by a comparable male worker. Indeed, we've seen virtually no progress in closing the gap in the last three years, and the gap has remained stagnant over the last decade. The numbers indicate an even more distressing reality for many American women when race is taken into account: Compared to each dollar earned by the average white male, a white woman makes 77.6 cents, a black woman makes 62.3 cents, and a Hispanic woman makes 54 cents.

These pay disparities stem from an array of employment practices and social expectations that prevent many women from earning as much as a comparable male worker. Although the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ban pay discrimination, the protections provided by these longstanding laws are frustrated in practice.

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Tags: Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment

“I’m Too Pretty” Shirt Normalizes Gender Stereotypes

Posted by Tanya Senanayake, Fellow | Posted on: September 08, 2011 at 04:59 pm

Recently, J.C. Penney featured a shirt on its website with the words “"I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me.” The shirt was directed at young girls. After several groups complained about the message that this shirt sent to young girls, J.C. Penney discontinued the sale of the shirt and issued a statement in response to the publicity.

Blog reactions to the sale of the shirt have ranged from amusement at the message to outrage over its marketing to young girls. Several people note that the shirt is meant to be funny and charges of sexism are thus misguided. There is also a general sense that, in the end, this is a consumer choice issue: The shirt is only a shirt, and parents may refuse to buy it.

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Tags: Sexism, Education & Title IX | Add new comment

Labor Day: A Celebration of Workers’ Rights and Women’s Rights

Posted by Tanya Senanayake, Fellow | Posted on: September 06, 2011 at 10:47 am

Labor Day has become a celebration of the last of summer, but its roots lie with the celebration of the American working class: It brings attention to the struggles, victories, and economic and social contributions of our workers.

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Tags: Economic Rights, Employment, Equal Pay, Equal Pay and the Wage Gap, Employment | Add new comment