Equal Rights Advocates

ERA operates or participates in several left-of-center advocacy coalitions and its listed coalition partners and allied organizations include the National Women’s Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for American Progress, UnidosUS, Gender Justice, and UltraViolet. ^{2  3  4}

Background

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) is a left-of-center policy advocacy and litigation organization focused on gender advocacy in the workplace and in schools. ⁵

According to its website, ERA’s advocacy involves policy development, litigation, research, and education work that focuses on alleged discrimination by women, girls, members of the LGBT population, low-paid workers, and immigrants. ⁶ It also advocates on policy issues including increased abortion access, ⁷ greater protections for migrants, ⁷ and allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. ⁸

In 2024, the ERA received a $2 million from Yield Giving, the philanthropic group founded by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. ⁹

History

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) was co-founded in 1974 by University of California, Berkeley law school graduates Nancy Davis, Wendy Williams, and Mary Dunlap to advocate and provide legal assistance against alleged discrimination both at work and at a school.  ¹⁰  In 1974, it provided litigation for a U.S Supreme Court case regarding access to disability insurance for pregnant women. In 1976, the ERA established the Lesbian Rights Project, which later became the National Center for Lesbian Rights. ¹¹

Additional litigation provided by the ERA has included cases challenging state-level bans against natal males identifying as transgender women in female sports, advancing what it called “genre equity,” preventing employee discrimination, increasing sexual harassment protections, and challenging forced maternity leave policies. ¹¹

Work Areas and Affiliations

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) produces content to educate on legal rights through digital campaigns, website content, policy videos, media thought leadership, educational events and programs, and the ERA digital policy hub. ¹² It conducts community research to track trends and develop programs. ¹²

The “National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues,” a project of ERA, is a coalition of organizations and industry partners focused on women’s interests in skilled-trades occupations. Members include the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Partnership for Women and Families. ²

Its “Family Voices Amplified” campaign focuses on alleged discrimination against African-American and Hispanic people while advocating policies to provide said communities a “living wage,” access to health care, and low-income housing availability. It is supported by the National Black Child Development Institute and UnidosUS, and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ¹³

“Equal Pay Today” is a coalition of advocacy organizations formed by the ERA that focuses on pay inequities based on gender and race. Member organizations include 9to5, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Black Women’s Roundtable, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the Center for American Progress, the Center for Law and Social Policy, Gender Justice, the Human Rights Campaign, Justice for Migrant Women, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, the National Women’s Law Center, UnidosUS and the Women’s Law Project. ^{14  3}

ERA’s Stronger California Advocates Network is a campaign to drive policy in California associated with left-of-center efforts on pay, child and health care availability, and abortion access.  Member organizations include the American Association of University Women, the Center for Popular Democracy, Equality California, and Voices for Progress. It is supported by left-of-center advocacy organizations including the California Immigrant Policy Center, Changelab Solutions, the Equal Justice Society, and UltraViolet. ^{4  15}

ERA’s Gender Equity Policy Hub is an online source that provides information on local and national legislation that affect LGBT, Hispanic, African-American, and Indigenous women, while focusing specifically on harassment, discrimination, and pay equity. ¹⁶

ERA is a listed member of the National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition formed to address perceived sex- and race-based wage discrimination. Member organizations include the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, Feminist Majority, Gender Action, MomsRising, the NAACP, Pride at Work, and the United Auto Workers. ^{17  18}

Advocacy and Litigation

In November 2025, Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) supported an amicus brief that urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down local Idaho and West Virginia legislation that required athletes to compete against opponents based on natal sex rather than gender identity. Other organizations in support of the brief included the American Association of University Women, Gender Justice, GLSEN, the League of Women Voters, Public Counsel, and the Women’s Law Project. ^{19  20}

In 2023, the ERA joined with the Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein law firm in filing a class-action lawsuit against Vassar College on behalf of five female professors over alleged pay discrimination. Thirty-five additional female professors supported the class action. The lawsuit claimed that Vassar had regularly paid men more than women and that its promotion system was discriminatory. ²¹

As a result of a gender discrimination lawsuit against Goldman Sachs which resulted in a $215 million settlement, almost $1.1 million in unclaimed settlement funds was donated to ERA and to the National Women’s Law Center. ²²

Leadership

As of 2026, Noreen Farrell was the executive director of Equal Rights Advocates. Farrell earned a law degree from the University of California, San Francisco and worked as a civil rights attorney before joining ERA in 2004 as a managing attorney. In 2012 she was named ERA’s executive director. ^{23  24}

As of 2026, Natalie Fleming-Nolen was ERA’s board chair. Fleming-Nolen earned a law degree from Harvard University and is a trial lawyer and partner at Morrison Foerster. ²⁵