Pitt Law Women's Association

For the first time in the history of the Oscars, more than one female filmmaker has been nominated for an Academy Award for best director in a single year. Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) scored nominations alongside Lee Isaac Chung (Minari), David Fincher (Mank) and Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round). The honor is also notable because the category rarely features any women: Before this year, only five female filmmakers had been recognized. Link in bio for the full story.

Today is International Women’s Day, which celebrates the economic, political, and social achievements of women throughout the world. The United Nations General Assembly recognizes this day because the active participation, equality, and development of women is necessary to secure peace, social progress, and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

March is Women’s History Month! This month, we celebrate the often overlooked contributions of women to history, culture, and society. PLWA recognizes that the history of the women’s movement towards equality has not been equal to all women, nor has it always recognized the contributions of all women. While the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920, black women did not get equal access to the ballot until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. History recognizes wom...en suffragist leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but the women at the forefront of the African American women’s suffrage movement have not had the same historical recognition. Black activists like Mary Church Terrell, the first president of the pro-suffrage National Association of Colored Women, and Adella Hunt Logan, a member of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association who campaigned for universal suffrage, have been left out of our mainstream history textbooks. PLWA also celebrates the contributions of trans women and recognizes that trans womanhood is womanhood. We celebrate Angela Morely, the first openly trans person to be nominated for an Oscar. We celebrate Sir Lady Java, who gained national attention when she joined with the ACLU to challenge a law banning cross-dressing in L.A. We celebrate the thousands of other trans women who have made their mark in history. This Women’s History Month, and all others to come, we celebrate the achievements and contributions of ALL women, including women of color, trans women, and all women within the LGBTQIA+ community. We acknowledge how far we’ve come in achieving equality, and we recognize how far we still have to go.

Barbara Ann Rowan, advocate for black lawyers, recently passed away at age 82 from Covid-19. Ms. Rowan was an early Black student at the elite Dalton School in Manhattan after it began integrating racially in the 1940s. In 1971, Ms. Rowan, then 32, joined the prestigious U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, making her the first Black female prosecutor there. Ms. Rowan’s hiring helped break ground for women generally in the Southern District, especia...lly in its criminal division, where only two or three women had preceded her. In 1982, Ms. Rowan was attending an Alexandria Bar Association event when a prominent defense lawyer used a racial slur in delivering an after-dinner speech to more than 100 people. The lawyer drew a standing ovation when the speech ended, but Ms. Rowan, the only Black attorney present, remained seated. After Ms. Rowan described the incident to Gerald Bruce Lee, a Black lawyer who had encouraged her to attend the event, he organized a group of Black attorneys to send a protest letter to the bar. The bar expressed deep sorrow over what it called a mistake by an old man. The incident helped spur the formation of a new bar group, the Northern Virginia Black Attorneys Association, who went on to hold state and federal judgeships. In the words of Lee, we realized we needed to unite and to support each other and to be our own voice. Link in bio for the full story.

Every year women do trillions of dollars’ worth of unpaid household work. In the United States alone, that total amounted to roughly $1.2 trillion in 2019, a figure nearly the size of the New York State economy. Nina Banks, an associate professor of economics at Bucknell University, argues there is another form of work that has been historically overlooked and uncounted: community activism by Black and other marginalized women. Not only are we doing paid work for our commu...nities and unpaid work in our households, Dr. Banks said. We are also doing a third layer of community work we’re exhausted. Banks argues that recognizing this collective activism as work reveals the extra burden Black and brown women are under. Link in bio for her full story.

Taking a pause on our women & girls series to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today. Dr. King was an incredible activist and we encourage our members to embrace his legacy and to speak out against injustice today and every day.

It’s that time of year where our 1Ls are beginning to apply for their first summer legal positions! This can be a really exciting time, but is often also a source of stress for many students (especially during a global pandemic). PLWA wants to help you navigate the job search process with some tips and tricks. We will be posting a new tip every few days, so make sure to keep up with our socials! We are also starting an Interview Bank, so if you are a 2L or 3L reading this...: please send us a short word document with the names of different firms you applied to in your own legal job search as well as the questions you were asked during interviews with those firms. This doc can be emailed to [email protected] and will be posted on TWEN for our members to access! *Don’t worry, this is PDO approved.* Today’s tip is one I personally implemented in my job search last January. Sending a brief follow up email to the person you interviewed with is a sign of respect and can also help them to better remember who you are and what you talked about. It’s a great way to make sure you’ll stand out in a pool of other applicants. We hope everyone enjoys this series and please feel free to reach out to PLWA members and mentors with any questions during this time!

Meena Harris is a lawyer, former tech executive for Uber, and founder of T-shirt company Phenomenal Woman. She also happens to be the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris. The name of Ms. Harris’s company comes from a Maya Angelou poem, published in 1978: I’m a woman / Phenomenally. / Phenomenal woman, / That’s me. First sold during Women’s History Month in March 2017, the Phenomenal Woman shirt was meant to remind people that Ms. Angelou came before us, and it was w...omen like her who made it possible for the Women’s March to happen in the huge way that it did. During a summer of mass protests against racism and injustice, Ms. Harris’s apparel took on new resonance. Naomi Campbell wore a Phenomenally Black T-shirt for a high-end fashion event in July. Regina King accepted her lead actress Emmy in September wearing a shirt by Ms. Harris, with an illustration of Breonna Taylor and the words Say Her Name. The Breonna Taylor shirt, released in August, flooded social media. On its front, the black tee read Arrest The Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor in pink text. Profits from the $45 shirt benefited the Breonna Taylor Foundation. (Depending on sales, other Phenomenal products raise anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000 for a nonprofit, according to Ms. Harris.) Link in bio for her full story. #phenomenalwoman

PLWA condemns the violent attack on democracy that occurred at the US Capitol on Wednesday. On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters, white supremacists, and other domestic terrorists incited a riot at the United States Capitol building. The riot sent senators, representatives, aides, interns and reporters to seek shelter while offices were ransacked and other damage took place. Amidst the chaos, two Senate aides directed staffers to gather the 18-inch by 10-inch boxes of electo...ral votes, the votes that had drawn the violent mob, and to transport the boxes to the House so that they could be certified. The two women are college students who have not been named for a number of safety reasons. PLWA applauds the women who saved the electoral votes and looks up to the courage they displayed in protecting our democracy. As law students we respect the rule of law and the peaceful proceeding of our constitutional processes. The events that occurred on Wednesday are unacceptable and we encourage all of our members to use their voices to speak out against these and other injustices.

VIRTUAL TRIVIA NIGHT! Join your fellow Pitt Law students and win prizes while raising money for a good cause! Next Thursday, August 13th, PLWA, BLSA, OutLaw, PLSP and APALSA are hosting a virtual trivia night for everyone at Pitt Law. Tickets to attend the virtual night are $3, but additional donations are welcome. Please Venmo @Pitt-Trivia-Night by August 12th and include your Pitt Law email in the description so we can send you a zoom link!... All proceeds will be donated to Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Urban League is the largest comprehensive social service and civil rights organization in Pittsburgh! They provide educational opportunities, health advocacy, housing, parental education, hunger prevention, sustainable wage and career prep to African Americans and other minorities. We hope you will join us next Thursday! If you have any questions about the event, please contact [email protected].

It’s that time of year! Finals are quickly approaching and PLWA is here to help ease some of the stress that comes with them. If you’re wondering: What kind of finals does my professor give? What should my outlines look like? Should I even make an outline for this class? What other resources can I use to study? PLWA will be answering these questions and more on Sunday, November 15 from 12 PM to 1 PM. During this time, we will have breakout rooms where students who had your professors in the past can answer questions specific to that professor. We will also offer general advice on how to prepare and do well during finals season. The Zoom link for this event is https://pitt.zoom.us/j/98374982981 and the password is PLWA. We hope to see everyone there!

PLWA & @ifwhenhow.pittlaw will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, October 8th, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm, focused on Abortion During 2020. Professor Greer Donley will speak to the challenges of accessing abortion during COVID and what the future of abortion looks like following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is an extremely important topic and we strongly encourage you all to attend. In order to attend, you must first register at https://pitt.zoom.us/web/register/WN_zZL6TPohQ-GoRx9tE9eevQ (this link is also in our Instagram bio). We hope to see you all on Thursday!

TODAY is the LAST DAY to RSVP for our mentor-mentee happy hour on Saturday! We are so excited to get to know everyone over drinks on Zoom! If you haven’t already, please email [email protected] to let us know that you’ll be joining! The Zoom link for the event is https://pitt.zoom.us/j/97319128645. The password is PLWA.

big thank you to everyone who came to today’s panel on reproductive justice in prison, and to Christine, Royse, Riley, and @womenslawproject for sharing this important message with us there are links in our bio to donate to some of the organizations that Christine mentioned, including the Western Pennsylvania Fund for Choice and Women’s Law Project.

PLWA will be co-sponsoring a panel with PLSP and If When How on Thursday, September 24th, from 12-1 PM. This panel will feature Christine Castro, a staff attorney for the Women's Law Project, Royse Bachtel, a Duquesne law student, and Riley Smith, an undergraduate student. Christine, Royse, and Riley will be discussing several topics relating to reproductive justice in prisons, such as access to menstrual products and birth control and the experience of pregnancy in prison.... We hope to see you there! The zoom link is: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96396572894

The deadline to sign up for our mentorship program is TODAY! Forms to sign up are linked in our instagram bio for both mentees (1Ls) and mentors (2Ls and 3Ls). Anyone is welcome to join.