Gloria Allred
#womenshistoryProfiles
Since the 1970s, Gloria Allred has dedicated her life and legal career to fighting for civil rights. Allred’s work has focused on supporting cases about racial justice, women’s rights, gay rights, AIDS discrimination, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and more.
As one of few women taking on this work in the legal system, Allred faced intense scrutiny and backlash with critics going so far as to call her a “press hound.”
Despite her critics, Allred’s dedication and preparedness, as well as her use of media relations to shape public narratives about her client’s stories, regularly won favor in the court of public opinion.
She was the first attorney in California to challenge California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Her victory at the California Supreme Court resulted in her clients becoming the first same-sex couple to be married in Los Angeles County.
Taking on high-profile cases helped Allred call attention to issues like discrimination, bigotry, sexual violence and gender equity while advancing opportunities for justice and wining precedent-setting rulings for her clients that would shape how law is argued for generations to come.