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Women's History

Selected Works

Lynne E. Curry

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in History

Rape In Chicago: Race, Myth, And The Courts. By Dawn Rae Flood (Book Review), Lynne E. Curry Dec 2012

Rape In Chicago: Race, Myth, And The Courts. By Dawn Rae Flood (Book Review), Lynne E. Curry

Lynne E. Curry

The deceptively simple title of Dawn Rae Flood’s monograph belies its analytical complexity. Her close reading of appellate court transcripts in mid-twentieth century Chicago demonstrates the intricate interplay between collectively held beliefs about rape and the formal requirements of the criminal justice system, revealing the “ways in which language and the seemingly neutral rules of the court engendered profound power relations.” (p.13) Flood also looks at challenges to the system launched by accusers, defendants, legal officials, civil rights activists, and second-wave feminists, and the significant changes they provoked.The criminal prosecution of rape evolved very slowly, from its common law roots …


Beyond "Choice": Roe V. Wade As U. S. Constitutional History, Lynne E. Curry Dec 2009

Beyond "Choice": Roe V. Wade As U. S. Constitutional History, Lynne E. Curry

Lynne E. Curry

I teach a general education course in U. S. constitutional history to undergraduates, the majority of whom are not history majors and, in fact, do not have much knowledge of—nor do they have a particular interest in—either women's or gender history. The occasional student is actively hostile to both. But Roe v. Wade (410 U. S. 113, 1973) is a case that virtually all students recognize, even if they do not know exactly what it is that the Supreme Court actually said. Not infrequently, they view Roe either as a case about a narrowly (and often imprecisely) defined "feminist" issue that does not concern …