Project 2025 Would Make Workplaces Less Safe for Women, Workers of Color, and LGBTQI+ Workers

Everyone deserves a workplace where they can work safely and with dignity, free from discrimination and harassment.  

But far too many workers—from corner offices to restaurants and factory floors—continue to endure harassment and other forms of discrimination at work. Women are disproportionately likely to experience workplace harassment, especially women of color and women in low-paid jobs, in male-dominated fields, and in industries where workers have limited bargaining power.   

While we still don’t have a full picture of the prevalence of sex harassment, one study revealed that as many as 60% of women have experienced sexual harassment, and in some industries the number is as high as 90%. Women of color, and in particular Black women, often experience racialized sex harassment. According to one recent survey, 50% of LGBTQI+ workers, and 70% of transgender workers, experienced discrimination or harassment based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or intersex status. Workers holding multi-marginalized identities may also experience harassment based on the intersections of their identities. 

As states have moved to ban or restrict abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, workers also increasingly risk being targeted, discriminated against, and harassed on the basis of pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and decisions about reproductive health care.   

Workplace harassment has devastating consequences. It robs workers of opportunities, advancement, and economic security, and attempts to rob them of their dignity. It can cause long-lasting physical and emotional harm, and negative health impacts. Our laws must protect workers and hold abusers accountable.  

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the primary federal agency tasked with enforcing our nation’s workplace anti-discrimination laws. Workers who have experienced discrimination, including harassment, rely on the EEOC to vindicate their rights.  

Project 2025, a sweeping policy agenda issued by the Heritage Foundation, would weaken the EEOC and upend its enforcement efforts by: 

• Calling for EEOC to reorient its enforcement priorities to prioritize certain types of claims, such as failure to accommodate religion or pregnancy (but not abortion). This reorientation is not based on data and would mean a shift away from current enforcement priorities, including sex harassment and race discrimination. 

• Prohibiting EEOC from entering into consent decrees — court approved settlements that require an employer to take measures to prevent future harm and to report on their efforts—to address systemic discrimination.  

• Limiting EEOC’s ability to issue guidance documents that help employers understand their obligations and workers understand their rights. 

In addition to weakening the EEOC, Project 2025 would get rid of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the federal office tasked with combatting discrimination and harassment in the federal contractor workforce. 

Project 2025 would make LGBTQI+ workers more vulnerable to harassment. 

Contrary to federal law and common decency, Project 2025 would allow employers to harass workers based on their sexual orientation and gender identity—workers like Jennifer Eller, a transgender woman and teacher who was subjected to relentless harassment at three different schools, which ultimately pushed her out of her job. No one should have to endure abuse just to earn a paycheck. But this is the world Project 2025 envisions, and it’s not theoretical. Earlier this year, a group of 18 states sued the EEOC, seeking to block the agency from protecting transgender and nonbinary workers from unlawful harassment.  

Project 2025 would allow employers to discriminate against some pregnant workers.  

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act protects the health and economic security of pregnant workers by guaranteeing their right to reasonable workplace accommodations, such as a stool to sit on, more frequent breaks, or time off to attend health care appointments. Project 2025 seeks to allow employers to deny these accommodations to workers who need them because of abortion. Several lawsuits are already threatening to undermine the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act’s protections for abortion-related accommodations. Abortion care is pregnancy care, and denying workers the accommodations they need to receive this care puts their health and their jobs at risk.  

We need to strengthen the agencies that enforce our anti-discrimination laws and develop more tools to fight workplace harassment and discrimination. Project 2025 does the opposite, making workplaces less safe for women, workers of color, and LGBTQI+ workers.  

We can promote safety, dignity, and equality for all workers by passing federal legislation like the Be Heard in the Workplace Act, which offers multiple reforms to prevent and respond to all forms of discrimination and harassment. Read more about the Be Heard in the Workplace Act here, and tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Act here.