Statement of Jocelyn Frye, President of the National Partnership for Women & Families
WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 22, 2026 – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), pushed by Trump-designated Chair Andrea Lucas, voted today to rescind important guidance on workplace harassment for employers, employees and enforcement agencies without giving workers, or the public, the opportunity to weigh in and provide input. The move reverses much-needed progress made by the EEOC during the Biden Administration in April 2024, when it released updated guidance on workplace harassment for the first time in nearly 25 years.
“The National Partnership strongly condemns the EEOC’s rescission of its guidance on harassment. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 called for the creation of the EEOC to enforce critical civil rights protections against employment discrimination to ensure that working people were treated fairly, and the decision to eliminate necessary guidance on harassment to help employers and workers is completely contrary to everything the agency is supposed to stand for.
“Instead of doing what it was created to do, this action makes clear that the Lucas-led EEOC will no longer make remedying discrimination against all workers a top priority. Instead, it is focused on picking and choosing between the workers it wants to protect and those it wants to ignore. Not only does this approach leave workers in the dark, it means that employers, managers, supervisors, and co-workers are on their own to interpret for themselves existing laws and best practices for preventing harassment against employees. It also sends a troubling message about the lack of commitment by this Administration to uphold the law, preferring instead to push its own ideological agenda. Today’s action, seeking to undo, in particular, protections against harassment based on gender identity, only exacerbates the current climate of division across the country, and will only add to the uncertainty of workers who worry about whether their rights will be protected as they go off to earn a living each day.
“This rescission also is an attempt to turn back the hands of time and undo progress, removing guidance based on decades of legal developments expanding the rights of workers – regardless of whether the Administration agrees with those expansions or not – as well as the lived experiences of workers across the nation.
“Harassment still exists in workplaces – and whether sex-based or gender-based, it disproportionately affects women, and contributes to the gender wage gap. The harassment guidance that had been in place until today provided clarity about employers’ legal obligations and employees’ rights needed to ensure all employees can thrive in workplaces free of discrimination and without fear.
“Rescinding this guidance doesn’t change the state of the law or the rights of workers, but it does add confusion and decrease the likelihood of some workers securing redress for harms they experience. Despite today’s action, the National Partnership will continue our commitment to do our part and protect workers from harassment alongside our partners in advocacy and our champions on Capitol Hill.”
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