BIO
Dina Bakst began her career as an attorney with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund where she worked on a range of women’s health and economic justice issues.
In 2005, she co-founded A Better Balance, a national legal advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the legal rights of pregnant women and caregivers in the American workplace. Through A Better Balance’s free legal clinic, she routinely hears from low-wage female workers forced out of their jobs after requesting a modest accommodation to continue working safely during pregnancy—accommodations as simple as a stool, extra bathroom break or temporary relief from heavy lifting.
She raised this issue, and called for a legislative fix, in a January 2012 New York Times op-ed, “Pregnant & Pushed Out of A Job.” Congress responded immediately and introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. In October 2013, she helped pass the New York City Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and other cities and states across the country have since followed suit.
Bakst is co-author of the book Babygate: How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace.