Legal Eagle Gloria Allred

I was inspired by this quick story of a high school teacher turned woman's right activist.

By: Gloria Allred, Working Mother December/January 2011

She takes on many high-profile legal cases. But the former high school teacher and mom of an adult daughter sees herself primarily as a warrior for women’s rights.

I can’t afford to buy into fear. Fear doesn’t produce results. Only strength and power get results.

I gave birth to my daughter when I was in college. When I divorced her father, I moved back to live with my parents. If not for my mom’s help with my daughter, I would not have been able to finish college and get a full-time job.

I taught high school in Philadelphia while commuting to New York University to earn my master’s degree in english education. I was a public-school teacher for six and a half years.

While in my thirties, I attended law school and earned my law degree from loyola university school of law in L.A. this was during my second marriage. I thought everybody worked 14 hours a day, six days a week. My father always did and so did I.

I’ve had the same law partners [Allred, Maroko & Goldberg] for 35 years, since law school.




We take on women’s rights cases. No other private law firm in the country handles women’s rights cases and has won hundreds of millions of dollars for victims as we have.

I was called a lot of names when I successfully filed a charge of sex discrimination against the then all-male celebrity friars club in new york city. The club settled the case with me, and I became the first woman to have lunch there. In settlement, I required that the club accept women for membership.

I’m a warrior who lives in a war zone for women. I can’t be deterred or intimidated. People aren’t used to seeing women not governed by fear. I forge forward and win.

When women are outspoken, they’re called the b-word—bitch or butch. but that tells me the other side has no good argument. That’s why they resort to name-calling.

My clients are mostly women, and I stand up for them and with them if I find them credible.

There are lots of tears in my office. Women are usually in trouble when they come to see me. I tell them: “first we cry, then we fight.”

I raise awareness for easy access to legal resources. I am proud to be a spokesperson for lawyers.com, which provides names of attorneys in every state throughout the nation.

I’m proud of my grandson and of my granddaughter, who was born, fittingly, on women’s equality day.

I’m 69, but there’s no possibility that I will retire. there’s such a huge need among women to have their rights protected. I am driven to do as much as I can for them while I’m here.