Joan C. Williams

Williams received a B.A. in history from Yale University, a master's degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.{{cite web|url=http://www.uchastings.edu/academics/faculty/facultybios/williams/|title=Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Hastings Foundation Chair and Director of the Center for WorkLife Law - UCHastings|publisher=uchastings.edu|accessdate=2014-05-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910020949/http://www.uchastings.edu/academics/faculty/facultybios/williams/|archive-date=2015-09-10|url-status=dead}} Between college and law school she did city planning work at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.{{Cite news |last=n/a |title=Joan Williams Bride of James Dempsey |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/02/archives/joan-williams-bride-of-james-dempsey.html |work=The New York Times}} She was employed for many years as a professor of property law at American University, Washington College of Law. She later became a law professor at University of California Law SF (2005-present).{{Cite web |title=Joan Williams, Professor of Law - UC Law SF College of the Law |url=https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/joan-williams/ |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings) |language=en-US}} Her 1989 law review article, “Deconstructing Gender,” was cited as one of the most cited law review articles ever written in 1996.{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Joan |date=1989-01-01 |title=Deconstructing Gender |url=https://repository.uclawsf.edu/faculty_scholarship/836/ |journal=Michigan Law Review |volume=87 |pages=797|doi=10.2307/1289293 |jstor=1289293 }}{{Cite web |date=2024-12-19 |title=Women We Admire this week: Hastings Law Professor Joan C. Williams |url=https://link.ucop.edu/2014/08/25/women-we-admire-aug-28-hastings-law-professor-joan-c-williams/ |access-date=2024-12-19 |language=en-US}} In 1998, she co-founded (with Adrienne Davis) what became the Center for WorkLife Law; she passed the baton to Liz Morris and Jessica Lee in 2024. She founded the Equality Action Center in 2024.{{Cite web |title=WorkLife Law |url=https://worklifelaw.org/ |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Equality Action Center - Home |url=https://equalityactioncenter.org/ |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=Equality Action Center |language=en-US}}

Williams’ work on social class extends the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s insight that class is expressed through cultural differences between elites and non-elites.{{Cite book |last=Bourdieu |first=Pierre |url=https://archive.org/details/distinctionsocia0000bour/page/5 |title=Distinction : a social critique of the judgement of taste |date=1984 |publisher=Cambridge, MA. : Harvard University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-21277-0}} For the past quarter century, Williams has documented how college-educated elites differ from middle-status (aka blue-collar) Americans. In White Working Class, she argues that the logic of blue-collar life stems from its focus on self-discipline “the kind that gets you up every day, on time, without “an attitude” to an often not-very-fulfilling job.”{{Cite book |url=https://bookshop.org/p/books/white-working-class-overcoming-class-cluelessness-in-america-joan-c-williams/7214397 |title=White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America a book by Joan C. Williams and Liisa Ivary |date=2017-06-27 |isbn=978-1-5384-7044-2 |language=en}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbd8HtBsaoE |title=Are you clueless about class? {{!}} Joan C. Williams {{!}} TEDxMileHigh |date=2022-03-19 |last=TEDx Talks |access-date=2025-01-02 |via=YouTube}} Blue-collar Americans also highly value traditional institutions that aid self-discipline: the military, religion and “traditional family values.”{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Joan C. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvjghv9t |title=Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter |date=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvjghv9t |jstor=j.ctvjghv9t |isbn=978-0-674-05567-4}}{{Cite book |url=https://bookshop.org/p/books/white-working-class-overcoming-class-cluelessness-in-america-joan-c-williams/7214397 |title=White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America a book by Joan C. Williams and Liisa Ivary |date=2017-06-27 |isbn=978-1-5384-7044-2 |language=en}} In contrast, the logic of elite life revolves around self-development because professional jobs require one to be “at the top of your game.” Elites also value novelty, which is a way they enact the sophistication that signals to others in the elite they are “in the know.”{{Cite web |title=Outclassed |url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250401731/outclassed/ |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=Macmillan Publishers |language=en-US}}

What results is a “class culture gap” that conservatives have sculpted into the culture wars that have forged an alliance between the working class and the Merchant Right against the Brahmin Left. Williams’ forthcoming Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back (St. Martins, May 2025) details how to destabilize this alliance, which has twice elected Donald Trump president.{{Cite web |title=Facing Social Class {{!}} RSF |url=https://www.russellsage.org/publications/facing-social-class |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.russellsage.org}}{{Cite journal |last=Piketty |first=T. |date=2018 |title=Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict |journal=Research Papers in Economics|s2cid=202602115 }}

Williams is well-known both in the US and abroad for her work on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Her TED talk, Why corporate diversity programs fail -- and how small tweaks can have big impact, has over 1.3 million views.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_c_williams_why_corporate_diversity_programs_fail_and_how_small_tweaks_can_have_big_impact?subtitle=en |title=Why corporate diversity programs fail -- and how small tweaks can have big impact |date=2021-04-15 |last=Williams |first=Joan C. |language=en |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=www.ted.com}} In 2012, she launched “bias interrupters,” a data-driven approach to interrupting bias in organizations.{{Cite web |title=Bias Interrupters |url=https://biasinterrupters.org/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |language=en-US}} Her team has published 37 articles in Harvard Business Review on bias interrupters and related topics.{{Cite web |title=Search Joan C. Williams |url=https://hbr.org/search?N=4294923993&Nrpp=10&Ntt=Joan+C.+Williams#browse-reports-filter |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=hbr.org}} Her book Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and for Good, was called by Anne-Marie Slaughter “a deeply researched blend of evidence and practical, actionable advice.”{{Cite web |title=Bias Interrupted Book – Bias Interrupters |url=https://biasinterrupters.org/book/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Bias Interrupted |url=https://www.worldofbooks.com/products/bias-interrupted-book-joan-c-williams-9781647822729 |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=World of Books |language=en}}

Williams’ team at the Equality Action Center (EAC) has conducted 22 experiments within companies implementing bias interrupters to see if they worked.{{Cite web |title=Traditional Bias Training Doesn't Work - Bias Interrupters Do |url=https://equalityactioncenter.org/publication/traditional-bias-training-doesnt-work-bias-interrupters-do/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=Equality Action Center |language=en-US}} One experiment equalized access to opportunities in an engineering company in a 6-month period. Other experiments sharply reduced bias against women and people of color in performance evaluations, while at the same time increasing evidence-based feedback by 44-52% for all groups (including white men). An experiment at a major manufacturing company sharply increased hiring of diverse candidates in a 6-month period. The Equality Action Center’s (EAC) bias training reduced key forms of bias by up to 22 points.

Williams is also often cited in the Korean press as an expert on the country’s low fertility rate as the result of a meme that has been shared throughout the country.{{Cite web |title="Korea is so screwed!": The statistic making foreign scholars' heads spin |url=https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1105828.html |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=Hankyoreh |language=ko}} She is the subject of a documentary on the country’s low birthrate by Korean public television, “A Conversation with Joan Williams.”{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8diLMpvBME |title="안 낳는 게 아니라 못 낳는 것" 미국 석학이 바라본 한국의 저출산 원인｜#골라듄다큐 |date=2024-07-31 |last=EBSDocumentary (EBS 다큐) |access-date=2025-01-07 |via=YouTube}}

Williams and her EAC team have published nine studies documenting how racial and gender bias play out in today’s workplaces.{{Cite web |title=Publications – Bias Interrupters |url=https://biasinterrupters.org/publications/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |language=en-US}} These studies document how bias plays out in everyday workplace interactions, and that the experience of white men in professional workplaces differs from that of every other group, with women of color very consistently (though not invariably) reporting the most bias and the least fairness.{{Cite web |title=Double Jeopardy? Gender Bias Against Women in Science |url=https://worklifelaw.org/publication/double-jeopardy-gender-bias-against-women-of-color-in-science/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}} These studies also show that white men strongly believe that their workplaces are meritocracies, but that other groups hold that belief at sharply lower levels.{{Cite web |title=Pinning Down the Jellyfish: The Workplace Experiences of Women of Color in Tech |url=https://worklifelaw.org/publication/pinning-down-the-jellyfish-the-workplace-experiences-of-women-of-color-in-tech/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}} The EAC’s work includes studies of the legal profession in the US and Chile, of engineers in the US and India, of US architects, of US tech workers, and US science professors.{{Cite web |title=Report Archives - WorkLife Law |url=https://equalityactioncenter.org/publication-type/pub-type-report/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=Equality Action Center |language=en-US}}

Williams’s Unbending Gender: How Work and Family Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford, 2000) won the Myers Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America, 2001.{{Cite web |title=Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award Winners |url=https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/873-gustavus-myers-outstanding-book-award |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=www.goodreads.com}}

Williams played a leading role in documenting maternal wall bias against mothers. She ran the working group whose work pioneered the study of workplace bias against mothers, and popularized the term “maternal wall bias” to refer to it.{{Cite web |title=The Maternal Wall: Research and Policy Perspectives on Discrimination Against Mothers {{!}} Wiley |url=https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Maternal+Wall:+Research+and+Policy+Perspectives+on+Discrimination+Against+Mothers-p-9781405130486 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=Wiley.com |language=en}} Her 2006 report “Out or Pushed Out: The Real Story of Women and Work,” set the frame later used to cover the COVID pandemic: that mothers weren’t choosing to drop out in pursuit of changed priorities—they were being pushed out by hostile workplace.{{Cite web |title="Opt Out" or Pushed Out?: How the Press Covers Work/Family Conflict - The Untold Story of Why Women Leave the Workforce |url=https://worklifelaw.org/publication/opt-out-or-pushed-out-how-the-press-covers-workfamily-conflict-the-untold-story-of-why-women-leave-the-workforce/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Grose |first=Jessica |date=2021-02-04 |title=America's Mothers Are in Crisis |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/parenting/working-moms-mental-health-coronavirus.html |access-date=2025-01-07 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} She also coined the popularized the term the “flexibility stigma” to refer to the career detriments often associated with flexible work schedules.{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Joan C. |last2=Blair-Loy |first2=Mary |last3=Berdahl |first3=Jennifer L. |date=2013 |title=Cultural Schemas, Social Class, and the Flexibility Stigma |url=https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/josi.12012 |journal=Journal of Social Issues |language=en |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=209–234 |doi=10.1111/josi.12012 |issn=1540-4560}}

When Williams founded WorkLife Law in 1998, mothers were being fired, told it was because they were mothers, and federal courts were saying that was not gender discrimination.{{Cite web |title=Piantanida v. Wyman Center, Inc., 927 F. Supp. 1226 (E.D. Mo. 1996) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/927/1226/2092246/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=Justia Law |language=en}} Her 2003 law review article “Beyond the Maternal Wall” argued that this common practice constituted sex discrimination in violation of Title VII and other federal laws.{{Cite web |title=Beyond the Maternal Wall: Relief for Family Caregivers Who Are Discriminated Against on the Job |url=https://worklifelaw.org/publication/beyond-the-maternal-wall-relief-for-family-caregivers-who-are-discriminated-against-on-the-job/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}} Her legal theories were adopted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s in 2007 and 2012.{{Cite web |date=2007-05-23 |title=Enforcement Guidance: Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities |url=https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-unlawful-disparate-treatment-workers-caregiving-responsibilities |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=US EEOC |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2015-06-25 |title=Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues |url=https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-pregnancy-discrimination-and-related-issues |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=US EEOC |language=en}} “Beyond the Maternal Wall” was prominently cited in the landmark 2004 case that held that discrimination based on motherhood was sex discrimination, Back v. Hastings on Hudson.{{Cite web |title=Back v. Hastings on Hudson Un. Free Sch. Dist, 365 F.3d 107 {{!}} Casetext Search + Citator |url=https://casetext.com/case/back-v-hastings-on-hudson-union-free-school-dist |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241219223015/https://casetext.com/case/back-v-hastings-on-hudson-union-free-school-dist |archive-date=2024-12-19 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=casetext.com |language=en}}  By 2010 “family responsibilities discrimination” (a term she coined) was one of the fastest growing arenas of anti-discrimination lawsuits.{{Cite web |title=FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES DISCRIMINATIOv=N: LITIGATION UPDATE 2010 |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=uMwZdrQAAAAJ&citation_for_view=uMwZdrQAAAAJ:9yKSN-GCB0IC |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=scholar.google.com}}

Williams has also played a central role in documenting work-family conflict among hourly workers, through reports such as “One Sick Child Away From Being Fired” (2006) and “The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict” (2010) (co-authored by Heather Boushey, then at the Center for American Progress).{{Cite web |title=One Sick Child Away From Being Fired: When "Opting Out" Is Not an Option |url=https://worklifelaw.org/publication/one-sick-child-away-from-being-fired-when-opting-out-is-not-an-option/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Joan C. |last2=Boushey |first2=Heather |date=2010 |title=The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict: The Poor, the Professionals, and the Missing Middle |url=http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2126314 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |language=en |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2126314 |issn=1556-5068}} She was Co-Principal Investigator of the Gap Stable Scheduling Study (with Susan Lambert and Sarvanan Kesevan).{{Cite web |title=Stable Scheduling Increases Productivity and Sales: The Stable Scheduling Study |url=https://worklifelaw.org/projects/stable-scheduling-study/report/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=WorkLife Law |language=en-US}} This was a randomized controlled experiment that shifted a group of Gap workers to more stable schedules and found that not only did workers’ health outcomes improve—so did Gap’s sales and labor productivity).{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Joan |last2=Lambert |first2=Susan |last3=Kesavan |first3=Saravanan |last4=Korn |first4=Rachel |last5=Fugiel |first5=Peter |last6=Carreon |first6=Erin Devorah |last7=Bellisle |first7=Dylan |last8=Jarpe |first8=Meghan |last9=McCorkell |first9=Lisa |date=2022 |title=Stable Scheduling Study: Health Outcomes Report |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4019693 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.4019693 |ssrn=4019693 |issn=1556-5068}}

Williams, with Jessica Lee of WorkLife Law, pioneered the use of Title IX to garner rights for pregnant and parenting students. Together they founded The Pregnant Scholar in 2007.{{Cite web |title=The Pregnant Scholar Homepage {{!}} Tools to support student parents |url=https://thepregnantscholar.org/ |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=The Pregnant Scholar |language=en-US}} In 2019, the legal rights they pioneered were included the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s report: Supporting Family Caregivers in STEM.

Williams was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands in 2017.{{Cite web |date=2018-02-06 |title=Utrecht University confers two honorary doctorates - News - Utrecht University |url=https://www.uu.nl/en/news/utrecht-university-confers-two-honorary-doctorates |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.uu.nl |language=en}} For her contributions to the legal profession, she has received both the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Scholar Award (2012) and the ABA’s Margaret Brent Women Award for Lawyers of Achievement (2006).{{Cite web |title=Fellows Awards: Outstanding Scholar Award |url=https://www.americanbarfoundation.org/abf-fellows/awards/outstanding-scholar-award/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=ABF |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Previous Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award Recipients |url=https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/women/margaret-brent-awards/pasthonorees/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.americanbar.org |language=en}} For her contributions to the work-family field, she received the Work Life Legacy Award from the Families and Work Institute (2014) and MSOM Responsible Research Award in Operations Management (2022).{{Cite web |title=Joan C. Williams, JD |url=https://wfrn.org/expert/joan-c-williams/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Work and Family Researchers Network |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=INFORMS |title=MSOM Society Award for Responsible Research in Operations Management |url=https://www.informs.org/Recognizing-Excellence/Community-Prizes/Manufacturing-and-Service-Operations-Management/MSOM-Society-Award-for-Responsible-Research-in-Operations-Management |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=INFORMS |language=en-US}} For her contributions to women in engineering, she received the President's Award from the Society of Women Engineers (2019).{{Cite web |date=2020-03-02 |title=Joan Williams |url=https://www.aiche.org/community/bio/joan-williams#:~:text=For%20her%20contributions%20to%20women%20in%20engineering,%20she,work,%20and%20unconscious%20bias%20over%20the%20past%20quarter-century. |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.aiche.org |language=en}} For contributions to psychology, she received the Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology (2005).{{Cite web |title=Distinguished Publication - Association for Women in Psychology |url=https://www.awpsych.org/distinguished_publication.php |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=www.awpsych.org |language=en}} Endowed lectures include the Roger S. Aaron '64, T '65 Distinguished Lecture on Ethics in Law and Business at Dartmouth, 2024, Massey Lectures in American Civilization Massey Lectures in American Civilization, Harvard University, 2008, Rembe Endowed Lecturer for “Unbending Gender: Overwork, Masculinity, and Sex Discrimination,” University of Washington Law School, 2000, and Gallivan Endowed Lecture, University of Connecticut Law School, 1999. {{Cite web |date=2018-08-07 |title=Roger S. Aaron '64, T '65 Distinguished Lecture on Ethics in Law and Business |url=https://ethics-institute.dartmouth.edu/news-events/annual-events/roger-s-aaron-64-t-65-distinguished-lecture-ethics-law-and-business |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Ethics Institute |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Massey Lecture Series – American Studies |url=https://americanstudies.fas.harvard.edu/massey-lecture-series/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=americanstudies.fas.harvard.edu |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Joan Williams, Professor of Law - UC Law SF College of the Law |url=https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/joan-williams/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings) |language=en-US}}

• Williams, Joan C. (2025) Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 1250368960.
• {{Cite book|title=White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America|last=Williams|first=Joan C.|publisher=Harvard Business Review Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1633693784|location=Boston, MA}}
• {{Cite book|title=What Works for Women at Work: Four Patterns Working Women Need to Know|last1=Williams|first1=Joan C.|last2=Dempsey|first2=Rachel|publisher=NYU Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1479835454|location=New York, NY|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/whatworksforwome0000will}}
• {{Cite book|title=Reshaping the Work-Family Debate: Why Men and Class Matter|last=Williams|first=Joan C.|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0674055674|location=Cambridge, MA}}
• {{Cite book|title=Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It|last=Williams|first=Joan C.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0195094640|location=Oxford|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/unbendinggenderw00will}}

• Feminist psychology

{{reflist}}

• [https://equalityactioncenter.org/all-publications/ Equality Action Center's List of Publications]
• [https://www.uclawsf.edu/people/joan-williams/ Faculty Page at UC Law SF]

{{feminist theory}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joan C.}}

Category:Feminist psychologists

Category:Living people

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Yale College alumni

Category:MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:1952 births

Category:American legal scholars

Category:American women legal scholars