Even though Anika Rahman has lived in the United States more than 20 years, the Bangladeshi native can still be stunned by gender inequities in “the land of the free.” There’s that persistent wage gap, for example, that has U.S. women earning 77 cents to a man’s dollar, with African American women making significantly less and Latinas less still. And then there’s the treatment of U.S. domestic workers, who are explicitly excluded from federal rules written to protect virtually all other wage earners.

But the Ms. Foundation for Women, the philanthropy where Rahman serves as CEO and president, helps to fight such inequality. One recent victory: New York state’s nannies, housekeepers and other domestic workers have now been granted minimal employment guarantees—overtime after 40 hours of work a week, one day off every week, three paid days off a year and protection from harassment. And the force behind the new law—Domestic Workers United, an 11-year-old organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers—has been funded and ardently supported by the Ms. Foundation.

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