00:07Oh my god this story is killing me. There's a group of men's rights activists suing women's
00:14organizations for meeting without men and it's threatening the financial stability of those
00:20women's organizations. One of those organizations was Ladies Get Paid. Claire Wasserman started
00:26Ladies Get Paid because I was really upset that 60% of today's college graduates are women but
00:31actually less than 22% of us are making it past middle management. And then I realized that money
00:44really is at the end of it and I also realized that none of my girlfriends and I were talking
00:48about money and we needed a place to talk. Claire hosted events for women all over the country to
00:53talk about how to negotiate salaries and eventually close the wage gap. One member of Ladies Get Paid
00:59left an event and successfully negotiated an $11,000 raise. Another member of Ladies Get Paid negotiated
01:06a $15,000 raise. Ladies Get Paid grew to reach over 30,000 women across the country. So you hosted
01:14an
01:15all-women's event? So all of our events were for all women. Now they're not. The reason that I made
01:20our events for female identifying and non-binary people only is because the premise of everything
01:26that we talk about are basically really sensitive, vulnerable, intimate issues that we experience
01:31at work as women. And it just was like if we had men in the room, how could we possibly
01:36feel
01:36comfortable enough to share these intimate details about our life, you know? Especially talking
01:41about harassment, sexual harassment, assault at work. I did not even consider it to be sexual discrimination.
01:47Claire was sued for violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which I had never heard of before.
01:52But I'd also never heard of a woman being sued for gender discrimination against a man before.
01:58So I reached out to Claire's attorney, Megan Cesar Eastman, to find out what was going on.
02:04Megan is based in California, so I called her in the one place I knew we would not be sued
02:09for
02:09excluding men from. The women's bathroom.
02:12Hey, Megan. Hi. Thanks so much for chatting with me today.
02:17Thank you for having me.
02:18Okay, so can you tell me a little bit about the Unruh Civil Rights Act?
02:22So the Unruh Civil Rights Act is one of California's civil rights laws, and it prohibits businesses
02:28from discriminating in the provision of services to those different protected categories.
02:39How is it used in a new way in this Ladies Get Paid case?
02:44Ladies Get Paid, the company, is an organization dedicated to bridging the equality gap between
02:50men and women in the workplace. They decided to hold some meetings. They made a decision to
02:55exclude men to create a safe place. There were a few men that attempted to come to these meetings
03:01who were part of a national men's rights organization. They were denied entry and then
03:07subsequently sued. Ladies Get Paid for gender discrimination. The purpose of this law, which
03:13is promoting equality among all different types of people, and is the same purpose of this organization.
03:19So it felt really inconsistent with the law's purpose.
03:23And as an attorney, is that something that you've seen happen often?
03:27These plaintiffs and this lawyer have been involved in a number of lawsuits, including
03:31numerous lawsuits targeting women's organizations. But this is the first time in my career I've
03:37seen civil rights laws applied in this way, as a sword to sort of cut down a group dedicated
03:42to women's equality, rather than as a shield for a victim.
03:46So I reached out to the attorney suing Ladies Get Paid, but unfortunately he was unavailable for
03:50an on-camera interview, citing a disability.
03:53But he did point out that he spent the last 15 years successfully suing over 300 businesses
04:00and organizations for discrimination against men under the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
04:05He successfully sued Club Med for not including men in a ladies-only discount and won almost
04:12a million dollars. And he successfully sued the Oakland A's for not giving men a promotional
04:19floppy sun hat on Mother's Day. And he won half a million dollars.
04:24Ladies Get Paid settled with the men's rights activists for an undisclosed amount.
04:28It's very expensive to go to court, even if you believe that you can win.
04:32In this case, if we were to lose, we actually would have to pay the legal fees of the other
04:37side.
04:38It was financially responsible to settle, as painful as that was.
04:42Ladies Get Paid became Ladies Get Sued.
04:45The lawsuit financially crippled the organization.
04:49Until their story went viral.
04:54Claire raised $100,000 in three weeks to cover her legal fees.
04:59Clearly, the case resonated with people.
05:02I think it exemplifies how threatening equality can be to groups that have historically benefited
05:07from inequality.
05:09And I think it certainly highlights the importance of people like Claire to continue to do their work.
05:14My impression and understanding is that they do truly believe in their own mission,
05:18which is that men are now being discriminated against to the benefit of women.
05:22It's kind of a shocking idea for me to hear.
05:25Megan has a point.
05:26Women are almost twice as likely as men to say that they've experienced gender discrimination at work.
05:33And over half of black women say that they've experienced at least one type of gender discrimination at work.
05:40And how could we forget that corporate America remains male-dominated?
05:45Of the 500 CEOs on the S&P 500 list, only 25 are women.
05:5225 out of 500.
05:55That's pretty bad.
05:56And not all men are bad.
05:59There's definitely a role for men in this conversation.
06:01Of course there are men who want to be allies.
06:03But guess what?
06:04Those men reach out and ask, how can I be an ally?
06:06I guess male allies don't sue organizations fighting for gender equality.
06:11Just a hunch.
06:12You know, when you come together with a group of women and you want to talk about work and money,
06:16that's political.
06:17We're more powerful and radical than we even know.
06:20And now I've certainly woken up.
06:23Everybody who interviews me gets angry emails from him.
06:26But that's not, you know, that doesn't stop me from speaking out.
06:29And I certainly hope it doesn't stop publications from wanting to write about the story.
06:32I'm really looking forward to him reaching out.
06:35I'm so excited.
06:37Well, did he reach out?
06:38Not yet, but I did ask him for his advice to young women.
06:42And he said it was to treat everyone equally, no matter their sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
06:49Okay, that's time.
06:50It's such a good story.
06:52Go for it!
06:52And your choice of being a feminist, if he knows them,ㅎㅎ if he bears nothing free.
06:54Now that you can pay for your advice, your accept this hashtag for tax and reason else please.
06:55One minute, we'll be running off.
06:55Part 2
06:56But that was doing the next topic.
