Thank you for the invitation to testify this morning. My name is Jocelyn Frye and I am
the General Counsel at the National Partnership for Women & Families. Since our
founding in 1971, the National Partnership has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure
equal employment opportunity for women. As a critical part of that work, we have
monitored federal agency enforcement of employment discrimination laws, including the
work of the Department of Justice (DOJ). We have focused special attention on the
enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), the landmark
antidiscrimination law that prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color,
sex, ethnicity, and religion. Title VII has been instrumental in expanding women’s
employment opportunities, and remedying discriminatory workplace practices used to
deny or limit women’s work options. The National Partnership has spent years — before
federal agencies, Congress, the courts, and the public — working to secure Title VII’s
critical protections for all to ensure that our workplaces operate free of discrimination. I
also have the privilege of co-chairing the Employment Task Force of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights. In that capacity, I work with many leading national
advocacy and legal organizations to ensure vigorous enforcement of employment
discrimination laws, and advance equal employment opportunity principles in workplaces
across the country. More »