The Program on WorkLife Law
The Program on WorkLife Law is a research and advocacy center, based at American University, Washington College of Law. It was founded as the Program on Gender, Work & Family in 1998 and is supported by research and program development grants, university funding, and private donations. The Program changed its name to the Program on WorkLife Law in October 2003 to better reflect its increasing emphasis on identifying barriers and practical solutions to issues in the workplace.
These solutions build on general theories of gender, work and family, theories that were in part constructed during the program's first five years. The Program on WorkLife Law is dedicated to decreasing the economic vulnerability of parents and children by restructuring workplaces around the values people hold in family life. To achieve this goal, the program seeks to change societal, governmental, and workplace norms and practices to better enable parents and other family caregivers to simultaneously pursue economic stability and family care goals. Many Americans are torn between responsibilities for family care and the way we define our ideals at work. We still define the ideal worker as someone who starts to work in early adulthood and works for forty years straight, taking no time off for childbearing, childrearing, or anything else.
The result is that adults who provide family care find themselves pushed to the margins of economic life. Their children accompany them: we have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the industrialized world.
The program seeks to address workplace issues by:
- Developing resources for family caregivers who are trying to balance their responsibilities at home with their responsibilities at work;
- Working with employers to ensure that they have usable and effective family friendly policies
- Providing technical guidance to state and federal policy makers who seek to develop public policies to help people balance work and family.
- Providing technical guidance to lawyers who advise employers on how to avoid employment discrimination, and to lawyers who represent employees who feel they have been discriminated against; .Working with the press to document common challenges facing family caregivers, and highlight employers - and model policies - that seek to help them balance work and family;
The case study project. We'd love to hear your personal story about the challenges
of balancing work and family, workplace discrimination you feel you have faced as the result of your family caregiving responsibilities and solutions that have helped you meet these challenges. If you would like to share your story, please email us at casestudies@wcl.american.edu.
What people are saying about the Program on WorkLife Law
"Finally, a logical look at the work vs. family debate. Williams blends brilliant scholarship, rigorous analysis and family values in a proposal to radically change the American workplace."
"It is impressive that Williams' work consistently stands up to rigorous academic standards; it is perhaps more impressive that Williams' academic work resonates with such relevancy to today's workplace and workforce. Her ideas lend themselves to immediate application. She has stepped out of the 'ivory tower' and into the chaotic world of thousands upon thousands of women and men who struggle to balance the unbalanceable. We--as individuals, as employers, and as a nation--benefit enormously from her thinking, her prodding, and her belief that work and life do not need to be at odds with one another."
"For lawyers like us, who are litigating these issues on the front lines, the [Program on WorkLife Law] becomes an invaluable source of thinking, advice, and resources."
Partner, Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman
"The Program on WorkLife Law is at the cutting edge of research on work/family issues. No one else understands so well why family both is and is not a 'women's issue.' That understanding has helped the program to become the national leader in legal research relevant to the field of work and family."
Professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies,
Pennsylvania State University
"Williams could jump-start a movement with reasoned argument. . . . Somebody please (foundations, are you listening?) give her money to convert her path-breaking ideas into public currency!"
"Washington College of Law's Program on WorkLife Law challenges the received wisdom about what companies have a right to expect and demand of employees. The program is a leader in developing the theoretical underpinnings and legal research that will bring about workplaces structured to enable employees to be successful both on their jobs and in their family lives."
Professor and Director,
Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University
"Professor Williams is a highly respected scholar who has. . .significantly altered public debate on quality of life issues. In a very short time, the Program's PAR Project has achieved national prominence as a major influence in work-life issues for attorneys."
