Kary Moss

Kary Moss had some powerful connections at a young age. As an undergraduate, she had an internship with Isabelle Katz Pinzler, director of the Women's Rights Project. Immediately after graduation from law school, Pinzler hired her as a WRP staff attorney in 1989. She remained there until 1994.

Moss describes Pinzler as "a wonderful supervisor who took me as a very young attorney and gave me the freedom to run with the Project." And run she did: Moss developed a particular focus on defending women with substance abuse problems. Many were prosecuted for child neglect due to drug and alcohol dependencies during pregnancy. "At the time, it was a really hot issue," Moss explains. She succeeded in overturning a woman in Kentucky's conviction for delivering drugs to a minor, which had been based solely on her use of drugs while pregnant.

Access to health care was another important area for Moss. One of her lawsuits took on a private hospital for refusing to take in pregnant women for drug and alcohol treatment. "We need to stop blaming women for their addictions," Moss insists. She brought in the health care community to work with her, as a national debate emerged about the issue.

Moss found herself at WRP during a challenging time, working to challenge sex discrimination in an era when such discrimination was less overt. Victories were primarily based on arguments that challenged policies had a discriminatory effect on women, rather than on showing that such policies were motivated by intentional discrimination. While the era presented challenges, Moss says that she can't recall any crushing defeats. "Frankly, we only won when I was there," she explains. Moss credits the hard work and thought put into every case by the staff.

"I was surrounded by such enormous talent on every floor of that building," Moss says of her coworkers. Joan Bertin and Pinzler were the senior staff at the time, and Moss describes the atmosphere as "very collaborative." The lawyers would have lunch together on a regular basis. "I felt very fortunate every day," Moss describes.

Moss left WRP when she had her first child; she decided she'd like to start a family in a "calmer environment." She and her husband moved back to Michigan to be near her family, and Moss worked on environmental justice issues for three years. She has been the executive director of the Michigan ACLU ever since.

Moss credits her experience at the WRP with providing a valuable background. "I saw what standards needed to be strived for," Moss recalls. She learned how to construct a case and develop class action suits and litigation with an eye towards broad institutional reform. Though as executive director, Moss is no longer a litigator, she knows exactly how to spot the cases that ought to be filed. She continues to abide by the principle that "litigation can never be viewed as an end in itself; you have to construct public policy to achieve your aims."

Today, Moss identifies several challenges for women's rights advocates. At the top of her list is gender bias in areas like science, as well as the way that the media talks about gender-related issues. Moss sees tremendous disparities in wages and professional achievements, as well as the existence of a glass ceiling. The biggest fight, she feels, is against "the public perceptions that the struggle is over."