In 2024, the Gender Justice and Harassment Working Group succeeded the Gender-based
Harassment and Violence Working Group of the BCCE.
Since its inception in 2017, the Working Group has organized annual international
conferences, virtual webinars, and courses on sexual and gender discrimination and
harassment law. It has also published a book, The Global #MeToo Movement, and developed
toolkits on workplace harassment investigations, along with other practical resources.
The Gender Justice and Harassment Working Group is committed to fostering discussions
and comparative work on emerging topics in the gender justice agenda while deepening
knowledge in established research areas.
Its key areas of focus include:
- Comparative research on gender-based violence and harassment across continents.
- The political, social and cultural backlash against gender equality, impacting areas
such as reproductive rights and women’s equality in the workplace, including within
political spaces - Specific forms of discriminatory practices flowing from legislative measures and the
role of national, regional and international courts in adjudicating justice - Comparative gender-sensitive analysis of policymaking (e.g., gender budgeting,
gender impact assessments, and gender auditing) - Exploring innovative forms of economic empowerment and economic justice policies
to achieve gender justice and ending sexual harassment and exploitation
The Working Group’s Co-Directors are Costanza Hermanin and Furaha-Joy Sekai-Saungweme. Scroll down to read their professional biographies.
Upcoming Events
June 11, 2025 | Online via Zoom
Reproductive Justice & the EU: Global Comparative Insights
9:30 am Boston; 10:30 am Brazil; 3:30 pm Abuja/Amsterdam; 11:30 pm Sydney
Past Events
Gendering Law: Writing and Auditing Gender-Responsive Legislation
April 30, 2025
Online via Zoom
Professor Ramona Vijeyarasa is the creator of the Gender Legislative Index and a leading scholar in gender and the law at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Dr. Vijeyarasa shared insights from her work on gender-sensitive legislative frameworks, including her groundbreaking Gender Legislative Index methodology and her current project Auditing the Auditors.
Funded by the Australian Research Council, this research evaluates parliamentary gender audit committees in Australia, Canada, and Spain, offering a comparative perspective on the effectiveness of legislative scrutiny for advancing gender equality. She presented her methodology for evaluating gender-responsive laws and shared insights from her comparative research on legislative auditing and gender mainstreaming.
More on Dr. Vijeyarasa’s work: https://www.
2025 CLE Conference on Gender Discrimination and Harassment Law
January 23-24, 2025
The International House and online via Zoom
Intimate Partner Violence and Gender Discrimination in the Family Courts
November 8, 2024
Online via Zoom
Join us on Zoom for a one-day online conference about gender discrimination in cases involving intimate partner violence and child abuse in family law courts in California, New York, Massachusetts, Canada, the UK, and Australia. Topics include children’s disclosures of abuse, the constructs of “parental alienation” and “reunification,” and the relationship between intimate partner violence and child safety.
2024 New Developments in Gender Discrimination, Harassment, and Violence in Employment and Education
January 4-5, 2024
The Bancroft Hotel and online via Zoom
Attorneys and academics from around the globe examined what’s new and what’s working, here in California and globally, in addressing gender discrimination, harassment and violence. Topics included prevention, litigation, non-litigation remedies, affirmative consent, defamation and backlash, investigations, Title IX and education, and the war on DEI.
2023 Rethinking Sexual and Gender Harassment Practice
January 23-26, 2023
Online via Zoom
Over three days, this conference went over topics including conflict resolution and restorative justice, workplace investigations, recent developments in Title IX law and policy, and effective settlements.
Caste Discrimination in the United States
September, 2022
Online via Zoom
South Asia’s caste system is a socio-political basis for discrimination, with Dalits, persecuted as the “untouchables” of society, facing prejudice in the workplace and academia. As South Asians have migrated to jobs and academic positions in the United States, caste discrimination has followed. This webinar opens with a presentation about the origins of caste and how it drives discrimination in society. We will then explore protections against caste discrimination in the U.S., both in the academy and the workplace. We will discuss the recent inclusion of caste as a protected status in California State University’s anti-discrimination policies and a landmark lawsuit filed by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Cisco Systems alleging discrimination against a Dalit engineer based on his caste status.
Weaponizing Defamation Law to Silence #MeToo Claims
April 28, 2022
Online via Zoom
We hosted a virtual webinar on Weaponizing Defamation Law to Silence #MeToo Claims. This dynamic and groundbreaking webinar included renowned practitioners who discussed how California, national, and international defamation law has been used to intimidate and silence #MeToo claims, as well as presented strategies to defend against defamation claims.
April 22, 2022
Online via Zoom
This program will cover the new California Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4.1, which takes a stricter approach to disciplining attorneys for discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in both law practice operations and matters of legal representation. In a significant departure from the past, the new Rule grants the State Bar the power to investigate and to prosecute discrimination and harassment claims and further makes clear that failure to advocate corrective action also violates the Rule. This program is especially important for those who manage law firms and law departments.
2022 Workplace Sexual Harassment Program
January 27-28, 2022
Online via Zoom
A US and global comparative examination of sexual harassment in the workplace, focusing on skills for litigators, advisors, investigators, and human resource professionals.
October 2021 Sexual Harassment in Education Conference
October 28-29, 2021
Online via Zoom
A US and global comparative examination of harassment of students, staff, and faculty at schools, college, and universities in the US and globally. The conference included 1.5 days of keynotes, panels, workshops, and role-playing simulations with leading experts for litigators, investigators, and Title IX professionals.
January 2021 Sexual Harassment in Education Conference
January 29-30, 2021
Online via Zoom
Lawyers, scholars, and activists gathered at this virtual conference to examine the law and policy issues governing harassment of students, staff, and faculty at schools, colleges and universities in the U.S. and globally, through a series of plenary sessions, workshops, and keynote addresses, with opportunities to meet and network with others in the field. Plenary topics included new developments in Title IX law and policy, harassment prevention education, and the development of toolkits to address the problem of sexual harassment in education. Speakers on Title IX included lawyers, policy makers, Title IX officers, and student organizers from institutions across the United States. Speakers on global responses to harassment included lawyers, policy makers, and activists from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, India, Kenya, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
2020 London Conference: Global Resistance to Sexual Harassment and Violence
June 8-9, 2020
Online via Zoom
The 2020 London conference transitioned from meeting in London to a virtual conference, bringing together over 100 experts, including scholars, legal practitioners, NGO leaders, discrimination law enforcement officials, and industry leaders from around the world. Simultaneous with the conference, the Center will be issuing our new book, The Global #MeToo Movement. The conference consisted of shared insights about sexual harassment/violence, pre-recorded panels, commentary via plenary sessions, workshops, and small group discussions. It included a keynote address by Professor Jamillah Bowman Williams, who spoke about how the #MeToo movement has not done enough to protect women of color and low wage workers. The Berkeley Center is working on posting the conference workshops online.
2020 Berkeley #MeToo Conference
February 7, 2020
Berkeley Law
On Friday February 7, 2020, BCCE hosted a full-day CLE program on Developments in Sexual Harassment Law. Topics included developments in California sexual harassment law, developments in Title IX law, developments in workplace investigation practice, and developments in the worldwide #MeToo movement.
2019 Berkeley #MeToo Conference
May 14, 2019
Berkeley Law
On May 14, 2019, legal scholars and practitioner-experts from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America, gathered at Berkeley Law to explore approaches and solutions with California lawyers and other specialists. It has been over a year since revelations of widespread sexual harassment by powerful men in journalism, entertainment, politics, and law — and the #MeToo hashtag — rocked the world, as women shared their common experiences of sexual harassment. This conference examined the systemic issues that permit harassment, and explored proposed creative solutions that were developed across the globe. The keynote speakers on the public day were Professor Catharine MacKinnon, U.N. Women Director of Policy Purna Sen, and labor activist Saru Jayaraman.
2018 Berkeley #MeToo Conference
May 15, 2018
Berkeley Law
On May 15, 2018, legal scholars and legal practitioner experts gathered at Berkeley Law to explore this important topic with California lawyers, managers and HR professionals. The conference included 24 speaker/participants, from Australia, China, France, India, Ireland, Italy, the U.K., the U.N., and the U.S. These speakers met for two days to exchange ideas with each other, including a public conference where they spoke as panelists to a diverse group of lawyers and human relations specialists. The public conference’s keynote speaker was Catharine MacKinnon, the law professor/activist who coined the term “sexual harassment” and situated it as a breach of discrimination law
Who We Are
Co-Directors
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Furaha-Joy Sekai-Saungweme
Furaha-Joy Sekai Saungweme is a lawyer, and the founder of Africa End Sexual Harassment Initiative (AESHI), a law reform and social movement project which seeks to create regional dialogue on sexual harassment for national impact and which calls for a Regional Law/Protocol on Sexual Harassment for Africa. She is a Georgetown Law LLM Alumni during which period she served as the LL.M. Advisor for the Georgetown Journal on International Law and developed her thesis, “Sexual Harassment in the Pan African Parliament” which she presented at the White House (Eisenhower Executive Office Building) in April 2024 before the White House Gender Policy Council. Furaha-Joy is the Lead editor of the #Firstofitskind book Sexual Harassment and the Law in Africa: Country and Regional Perspectives. This groundbreaking publication led to an invite from Voice of America (VOA) Our Voices 638 to discuss the problem of sexual harassment in Africa as well as the book, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiZpzGgjYV0
Furaha-Joy is Co-Director of the Gender Justice and Harassment Working Group at the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, Co-Editor in Chief of the BCCE E-Journal and a Board Member of the FemIDEAS, Decolonizing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education Project, based at the University of Westminster, United Kingdom. She has authored peer reviewed academic papers on gender, democracy and human rights in Africa which she has presented at academic institutions in Europe, Africa and the USA. Furaha-Joy is an active member of notable international networks including International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) as well as the International Conference on Legislation and Law Reform (ILEGIS) which focuses on how laws are written in the United States and around the world at the international, national, and subnational levels.
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Costanza Hermanin
Costanza Hermanin is a Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe-Bruges and SciencesPo Paris. She is also the co-director of the Gender Justice and Harassment working group of the Berkeley Centre on Comparative Equality and Antidiscrimination Law, of which she is also a co-founder.
Her academic and teaching work focuses on the politics and decision-making of the European Union, with a special focus on inter-institutional relations, gender and politics, gender budgeting and impact assessment, and policies in the field of justice and home affairs, non-discrimination and foreign policy. She has presented her work several times at the European Parliament and other international organizations and is a frequent media contributor.
At the EUI, Costanza coordinates the work on gender in political economy and has directed the Inclusive Leadership Initiative. At the College of Europe, for the last 10 years, she has been in charge of the core curriculum on negotiations and decision-making in the European Union with Pierpaolo Settembri and of executive training focused on EU asylum and migration policy. Costanza is a member of the advisory board of the Guarini Institute of Public Affairs and a board member of the Migration Policy Group. She has been an alternate member of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe (ECRI) for Italy.
Costanza has been active politically in Italy and is the President of EquALL, an NGO promoting inclusiveness and parity in politics. She has worked in the cabinet of Italy’s Minister of Justice (2016-2018), and held positions with the Open Society Foundations in Brussels, the European Commission, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has worked with the World Bank Institute. She is among the founders of Women in International Security – Italy, and Progetto RENA.
Costanza obtained an MA and MPhil in Political Science and Comparative European Studies at Sciences Po Paris, as well as an MA in International and Diplomatic Studies at the University of Florence. She was awarded her PhD in Political and Social Science at the European University Institute in Florence and has spent research periods at the Centre d’Etudes Internationales of Sciences Po in Paris and at the Wissenschaft Zentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung in Berlin. As a Fulbright Schuman Research Scholar, she worked for one year at Columbia University in New York and UC Berkeley.
Student Assistants
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Danae Ramos Granados