Law Commons^™

Chosen Family, Care, And The Workplace, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Employees often request time off work to care for the medical needs of loved ones who are part of their extended or chosen family. Until recently, most workers would not have had any legal right to take such leave. A rapidly growing number of state laws, however, not only guarantee paid time off for family health needs, but also adopt innovative and expansive definitions of eligible family.

Several provide leave to care for intimate partners without requiring legal formalization of the relationship. Some go further to include any individual who has a relationship with the employee that is “like” or …

Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Relationships: New Possibilities For Research On The Role Of Marriage Law In Household Labor Allocation, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Research comparing the relative significance of economic exchange theories and gender norms on parents’ division of income-producing and domestic responsibilities often fails to consider sufficiently the role that marriage may play. This article shows that, in the United States, numerous aspects of state and federal law relating to marriage encourage spouses to specialize in distinct breadwinning and caretaking roles. Same-sex marriage offers new opportunities to assess the importance of marriage in household labor allocation decisions while controlling for gender. For any data gathered before June 2015, however, it may be distorting to characterize same-sex couples as simply “married” or “un-married”; …

Reconfiguring Sex, Gender, And The Law Of Marriage, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article brings together legal, historical, and social science research to analyze how couples allocate income-producing and domestic responsibilities. It develops a framework—what I call the marriage equation—that shows how sex-based classifications, (non-sex-specific) substantive marriage law, and gender norms interrelate to shape these choices. Constitutional decisions in the 1970s ended legal distinctions between the duties of husbands and wives but left largely in place both gender norms and substantive rights within marriage, tax, and benefits law that encourage specialization into breadwinning and caregiving roles. By permitting disaggregation of the marriage equation, the new reality of same-sex marriage can serve as …

Changing The Marriage Equation, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article brings together legal, historical, and social science research to analyze how couples allocate income-producing and domestic responsibilities. It develops a framework—what I call the “marriage equation”—that shows how sex-based classifications, (non-sex-specific) substantive marriage law, and gender norms interrelate to shape these choices. The marriage equation has changed over time, both reflecting and engendering societal preferences regarding the optimal allocation of breadwinning and caretaking responsibilities.

Until fifty years ago, sex-based classifications in family and employment law aligned with gender norms to enforce an ideology of separate spheres for men and women. The groundbreaking sex discrimination cases of the 1970s …

Exposing Sex Stereotypes In Recent Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence, Deborah A. Widiss, Elizabeth Rosenblatt, Douglas Nejaime

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article examines sex discrimination arguments in recent same-sex marriage cases. Since 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court held in Baehr v. Lewin that denying same-sex couples the right to marry could state a claim of sex discrimination, every state high court to consider the issue has rejected the claim. But many recent decisions have in fact relied upon sex-based stereotypes to justify marriage restrictions. These include claims that men and women, simply by virtue of their gender, provide distinct role models for children; that men and women play "opposite" or "complementary" roles within marriage; and that marriage is essential …

The Adverse Testimony Privilege, Inalienable Entitlements, And The "Internal Stance": A Response To Professor Regan, Susan H. Williams

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Guarding The Altar: Physiological Restrictions And The Rise Of State Intervention In Matrimony, Michael Grossberg

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Family Law (Survey Of Kansas Law), Dan Hopson Jr., John Brand Jr.

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Vernier, C. G., American Family Laws, Vols. 3 And 4, Ralph F. Fuchs

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Action For Alienation Of Affections, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Vernier, C. G., American Family Law, Vol. 1, Ralph F. Fuchs

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Duty Of The Husband To Support The Wife, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Richmond, M. E. And F. S. Hall, Marriage And The State And May, G., Marriage Laws And Decisions In The United States, Ralph F. Fuchs

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Validity Of Void Divorces, Fowler Vincent Harper

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Madden, J. W., Cases On Domestic Relations And Mccurdy, W. E., Cases On The Law Of Persons And Domestic Relations, Ralph F. Fuchs

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Breach Of Promise Suits, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Cases On Domestic Relations By Joseph Warren Madden, Robert C. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.