BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Leora Eisenstadt, associate professor of legal studies and the Murray Shusterman Research Fellow at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, will be the next presenter in Equity Now, a national online speaker series on race, gender, and how law and policy can facilitate equality, fairness and inclusion in organizations.
Eisenstadt will lead a discussion on the topic, “#MeToo and Beyond: Sexual Harassment and the Future of American Workplace Culture,” which will begin at 6 p.m. (Eastern) on Monday, Nov. 8.
The Kelley School of Business is co-sponsoring the Equity Now series along with the business schools at the University of Connecticut, Virginia Tech University, Temple University and the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. Registration is free and open to the public.
Speakers featured in the Equity Now series are esteemed business lawyers focused on legal and policy issues and how law and policy can promote diversity, equity and fairness in organizations and society.
In 1986, the Supreme Court defined sexual harassment in a case called Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, which involved allegations of coerced sexual intercourse. Beginning in 2017, the #MeToo Movement again focused attention on the role sexual harassment plays in the workplace and society more generally with a flood of allegations against figures in media, government, Hollywood, and corporate America.
Now, almost five years later, we can begin to reflect on the ways in which this movement altered or left intact workplace norms and the role of the law in making progress or hindering it. Eisenstadt will review the legal history and theory of sexual harassment, explore the implications of the #MeToo Movement, discuss recent efforts to use technology to detect and prevent harassment, and provide recommendations for business leaders to create healthy workplace cultures.
Prior to joining the faculty at the Fox School, Eisenstadt spent two years as a Freedman Teaching Fellow and lecturer in law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. Her areas of scholarship and interest include employment law, business law, law and linguistics, work-family conflict, sex discrimination, race and the law and public policy.
Eisenstadt received her J.D., cum laude from New York University School of Law and her B.A. in History, cum laude from Yale University. In 2003-04, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Israel studying sex equality and the development of Israeli equal employment opportunity law. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable R. Barclay Surrick in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and spent several years in the Labor & Employment Group at Dechert LLP litigating cases and counseling clients in employment discrimination issues, general employment matters and Title IX-related litigation.