The Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center — formerly the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network — works to advance women’s-focused leadership and ensure the success of women in public life and the law. We carry out our mission through three core pillars of service: we provide top-notch leadership development opportunities for NYU Law students; we create dynamic public programming and offer a robust line-up of live and virtual events; and we lend our voices and expertise to advocacy and media initiatives that elevate and promote gender equity.

BWLC Advisory Board

The BWLC is thrilled to announce our newly-formed Advisory Board to help advance the BWLC’s mission and guide the Center as it embarks upon its next chapter of growth and impact. Helmed by the BWLC’s visionary founders Sheila Birnbaum ’65 and Sara Moss ’74, members include ten outstanding leaders in the private and public sector, each of whom brings distinct expertise. Learn more about our Advisory Board.

Abby Lyn Gillette Fellowship

The Abby Lyn Gillette Fellowship offers a $15,000 stipend to a rising 2L or 3L student at NYU Law whose summer is dedicated to advancing women’s rights. (It is in lieu of a regular PILC grant, which offers $5,000 for rising 2Ls and $7,500 for rising 3Ls.)

Applications for the 2024 Abby Lyn Gillette Fellowship will be considered through Sunday, April 7, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET, and the recipient will be notified in mid-April. Learn more about the Abby Lyn Gillette Fellowship.

Event Spotlight

On February 2, the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center's annual symposium — a celebration of the scholarship of NYU Law Professor Peggy Cooper Davis and her path-breaking work on Neglected Stories: The Constitution and Family Values — was presented to standing room only audience. Top legal scholars, historians, and advocates discussed the myriad ways the Roberts Court is undermining the Reconstruction Amendments, and explored what work is needed to counter the Court’s dangerous decisions. Learn more about the symposium, Reconstructing the Reconstruction Amendments

NYU Law News: Peggy Cooper Davis’s seminal book on the Reconstruction Amendments inspires a BWLC symposium

Reconstructing the Reconstruction Amendments: Fireside Chat with Professor Melissa Murray and President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Maya Wiley