Advocacy
WBA’s Advocacy Committee considers the WBA mission when making recommendations for issue statements, sign-ons, letters of support, amicus brief development, etc.:
Maintaining the honor and integrity of the profession; promoting the administration of justice; advancing and protecting the interests of women lawyers; promoting their mutual improvement; and encouraging a spirit of friendship.
WBA’s Advocacy Committee has developed a form for members and other organizations to request WBA’s engagement. You can use this form to request that the WBA sign on to an amicus brief, draft an amicus brief, sign a statement, make a social media post, post a blog, sign a letter, participate in a program, sign on to or endorse legislation, or provide testimony. Requests will be considered by the Advocacy Committee and some actions may require a Board discussion or vote.
WBA Initiative on Advocacy
This Initiative report, prepared and compiled by Bridget Bailey Lipscomb, WBA President, 2021-2022, discusses WBA’s history of advocating for women, the 2021 membership survey, the Dobbs amicus brief, the Advocacy Committee’s Town Hall, the 2021-2022 advocacy activities, and the future of WBA’s advocacy efforts.
WBA Issue Statements
In our Centennial Year (2017), the WBA honored our history and mission by initiating a project to develop a series of Issue Statements on topics of preeminent concern to our members and to all citizens. Since then, we have developed statements on issues that focus on core societal concerns. The WBA believes it is just for women lawyers to take a leadership role in advocating for improvements in each of these areas.
WBA Statements
The WBA develops statements in response to current events that are of preeminent concern to our members and to all citizens.
WBA Sign Ons
In addition to drafting and signing on to amicus briefs, the WBA joins with other organizations in advocacy efforts, and signs on to letters and statements in response to current events that have an impact on women and women attorneys. The statements are made with the WBA’s mission in mind.
Free the Pill Coalition
WBA is a member of the Free the Pill coalition, a group of more than 150 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, research and advocacy groups, youth activists, health care providers, prominent medical and health professional associations, and others who share a commitment to ensuring more equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable birth control to people of all ages, backgrounds, and identities in the United States. Coalition members support over-the-counter (OTC) birth control pills that are affordable, fully covered by insurance, and available to people of all ages. To express their commitment, coalition members sign on to our statement of purpose.
DC Coalition to End Child Marriage
WBA is a member of the DC Coalition to End Child Marriage. Child marriage is a serious problem in Washington, DC, where the marriage age is 18, but legal loopholes allow a parent to enter a 16- or 17-year-old into marriage with nothing more than a signature. It is reported that 110 minors were entered into marriage in the District of Columbia between 2000 and 2023; about 67% were girls wed to adult men. The Coalition advocates for the elimination of the loopholes that allow minors to be entered into marriage before age 18 – and make the marriage age 18, no exceptions.
January 2009
WBA congratulated President Obama on his election (PDF) and urged him to support DC voting representation in Congress and to look to qualified local jurists and attorneys when making appointments to Judges Appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (PDF)
February 1988
WBA past president Janine Harris gives testimony (PDF) at the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession hearing in Philadelphia, PA.