International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day this past month, the Labor & Employment Section compiled a history of notable female leaders in our practice area:

Rose Elizabeth Bird

Rose Elizabeth Bird made history in 1975 when she became the first female Cabinet Secretary in California’s history (Secretary of Agriculture) where she was instrumental in achieving the adoption of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act. Later, in 1977, she became the first woman appointed to the California Supreme Court and the first female Chief Justice in the state’s history. She presided over the Court during a transformative period and helped open the door for greater gender diversity in California’s judiciary. At the time, the judiciary was comprised of about 6% females nationally, and similarly in California. 

Joyce L. Kennard

Joyce L. Kennard was the second female and first Asian American justice to serve on the California Supreme Court. She served on the Court from 1989 to 2014. Born in Bandung, Indonesia (then the Dutch East Indies), she immigrated to the United States and rose from working student to one of the longest-serving justices in California history. Her opinions helped shape modern California employment law through decisions like Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles (1991) which found the public employer responsible for the on duty misconduct of its employee, Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club (2003), which confirmed that California law defines a physical disability more broadly than Federal law, and Arias v. Superior Court (2009) which distinguished class actions from representative PAGA actions in holding that class action requirements do not apply to representative actions brought under the PAGA.

Kathryn Mickle Werdegar

Kathryn Mickle Werdegar – the third female appointed to the California Supreme Court – served on the Court from 1994 to 2017. Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar authored the California Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court (2012), clarifying that although employers must provide meal breaks by relieving workers of all duties, they are not required to ensure that employees stop working. The case remains a cornerstone of California wage-and-hour law.

Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye

Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye served as Chief Justice of California from 2011 to 2023 and was the first Filipina American and second woman to lead the California Supreme Court. As Chief Justice of California, Tani Cantil-Sakauye authored major employment law decisions, including Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) which changed the landscape of employment classification in California. The Court’s decision established that all workers are presumed to be employees unless the employer can show that a worker meets the three criteria under the “ABC test”, to establish an independent contractor.