Jessica Neuwirth

Jessica Neuwirth (born 10 December 1961) is an American lawyer and international women's rights activist. She is one of the founders of Equality Now, an international women's rights organizations established in 1992, and the founder and director of Frontline Women's Fund, a project hosted by the Sisterhood is Global Institute to support women's organizations around the world. She is the founder and President Emerita of the ERA Coalition and Fund for Women's Equality.

Background Neuwirth was born and raised in New York City. She went on to receive her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1985. While working for Amnesty International, Neuwirth was a producer of the Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, one of the first rock concert tours for human rights which consisted of 20 concerts in 16 countries over the course of six weeks to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

She also worked for the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, also serving the High Commissioner as a Special Advisor on Sexual Violence.

In the 1990s, Neuwirth served as a special consultant on sexual violence to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for its landmark Akayesu judgment, holding that rape is a form of genocide. Both organizations were founded to promote sex equality and recognition of women through the addition of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

As a guest lecturer, Neuwirth has taught international women's rights at Harvard Law School. She published her first book, Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for an Equal Rights Amendment is Now in 2015, which examines the landmark legal cases and discriminatory injustices faced by women in the United States that inform the need for an Equal Rights Amendment.