Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Three Perspectives On Workplace Harassment Of Women Of Color, Maria L. Ontiveros

Golden Gate University Law Review

In this address, I suggest a framework for understanding the ways in which issues of race and culture play a pivotal role in what we have thought of as "sexual harassment." This framework views an incident of workplace harassment from the perspectives of the three key players: the harasser, the victim and the judicial system. From the viewpoint of the harasser, women of color appear to be less powerful, less likely to complain, and the embodiment of particular notions of sexuality. From the perspective of the women, attitudes in their community and lessons learned in their culture may make it …

Women's Work: Finding New Meaning Through A Feminist Concept Of Unionization, Janelle M. Rettler

Golden Gate University Law Review

In the first section I examine the traditional structures used to change the workplace to adapt to changing societal demands. I address what these structures have accomplished and the limitations of these structures in dealing with the problems endemic in women's work. Secondly I address why women's needs in the workforce should be confronted differently than they have been in the past. And lastly, I assert that by combining traditional structures with a clearer focus on women's needs, new concepts of reform will emerge to legitimate women's work experiences.

California Federal Savings & Loan Association V. Guerra: The State Of California Has Determined That Pregnancy May Be Hazardous To Your Job, Susan Spalter Berman

Golden Gate University Law Review

In California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the facial validity of California Government Code section 12945(b)(2). The court vehemently rejected a federal preemption argument and held that a law setting a minimum leave for pregnancy disabilities did not, on its face, discriminate against men or conflict with the purpose of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19644 as amended in 1978 by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). The issue of whether the PDA allows any different treatment for pregnancy has divided the feminist community.

Comparable Worth And The Market Defense: A National Debate, Helena Kaminski

Golden Gate University Law Review

The concept of comparable worth is rooted in a simple premise: salaries should be based on the intrinsic value of the employee's work to the employer. Yet attempts to enact comparable worth measures have caused controversy in state legislatures, city boardrooms, and courts. Increasingly, the debate has centered on the market's role in setting wages. Comparable worth advocates argue that employers pay women a sex-slanted wage which is illegal under Title VII. Employers, in turn, urge that far from being discriminatory, such wages reflect the market's workings, and are necessary to their survival. The defense has hitherto proven remarkably successful …

Pregnancy Benefits, Benign Sex Discrimination, And Justice: Why Does It Matter How We Ask The Questions?, Patricia Ann Boling

Golden Gate University Law Review

One purpose of this essay will be to respond to this argument by showing what sorts of considerations are pertinent and what conclusions are warranted if one considers the underlying issue in pregnancy benefits cases to be distributive justice, and then contrasting this with the considerations and judgments indicated by a more comprehensive view of sex discrimination. There are other reasons as well for maintaining the debate about the proper perspective on pregnancy disability issues. The Court's difficulties in convincingly justifying the refusal to equate pregnancy with sex-based discrimination in Geduldig and Gilbert, and in distinguishing the seniority and pregnancy …

Equal Pay For Comparable Worth, Jolie Lipsig

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment will briefly trace the history of job segregation from colonial America to the present, and explore the relationship between the Equal Pay Act and Title VII in light of the controversial Bennett Amendment. The interpretation of this Amendment, which limits the effect of the Equal Pay Act on Title VII, has lead to arguments both for and against adoption of a comparable worth standard by the courts. A comparison of opinions of the various courts concerning the amendment will follow, focusing on the emerging theory of equal pay for comparable worth. A discussion of different job evaluation techniques …

Real Work: Domestic Workers' Exclusion From The Protections Of Labor Laws, Lisa Diaz-Ordaz

Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Fait Accompli?: Where The Supreme Court And Equal Pay Meet A Narrow Legislative Override Under The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Megan Coluccio

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’s consequences will be minimally felt, so long as the Act is narrowly construed. The Comment suggests congressional action was appropriate after the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision and discusses the political and legislative debate leading to the Act. In addition, the Comment analyzes the Act in application, exploring its meaning, implications, and function. The Comment argues that the concerns and consequences arising from the enactment of the Act can be alleviated and avoided by a narrow interpretation of its amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Finally, the Comment recommends …

Work Environment And Women: U.S. Practice, Chioma Kanu Agomo

Annual Survey of International & Comparative Law

The aim is to show that reproductive health policies under present circumstances constitute a denial of equal rights to work granted to women since 1964, and therefore a denial of their human rights. It is also intended to show further that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support present policy, which is merely a pretext for shying away from the larger issue of safe and healthy environment for all workers and their families present and future.

Women Farmworkers In California, Julie Barreto

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remedies For Sex-Discriminatory Health And Safety Conditions In Male-Dominated Industrial Jobs, Ellen Shapiro

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The 'Offer Of Judgment' Rule In Employment Discrimination Actions: A Fundamental Incompatibility, Maureen Malvern

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Job-Related Sexual Harassment And Union Women: What Are Their Rights?, Barbara M. White

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sexual Harassment In The Workplace: A Practitioner's Guide To Tort Actions, Alice Montgomery

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sex Discrimination In Academia: Representing The Female Faculty Plaintiff, Judith A. Mazia, Nancy De Ita

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Agenda For Women Lawyers: Pandora's Box, Ann Fagan Ginger

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women's Employment Rights In China: Creating Harmony For Women In The Workplace, Jamie Burnett

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Note explores the global problem of gender-based labor inequality as exemplified in China. China's historic and cultural framework, the efforts the Chinese government has made to coordinate with the global community on women's rights initiatives, and recent legislation passed at both national and local levels in China provide an interesting case study for countries facing gender inequality in the workplace. The items of legislation, though sometimes drafted using international treaties as a framework, contain unique provisions that provide protections for Chinese women that are not seen elsewhere in the world. Additionally, the Chinese government's current political goal of achieving …

Marginal Whiteness, Camille Gear Rich

Camille Gear Rich

How are whites injured by minority-targeted racism? For years, American antidiscrimination scholars and judges have not looked beyond the familiar answers provided by Civil Rights Era norms. According to these norms, the primary injuries whites suffer due to minority targeted discrimination are denial of the enjoyment of a colorblind workplace or frustration of their interest in diversity, including the opportunity to associate with minorities. Consistent with this view, Title VII interracial association doctrine — the vehicle that permits whites to sue for minority targeted discrimination in the workplace — only recognizes these two narrow categories of injury. However, review of …

What Dignity Demands: The Challenges Of Creating Sexual Harassment Protections For Non-Workplace Settings, Camille Gear Rich

Camille Gear Rich

In the more than twenty years since the Supreme Court created Title VII’s sexual harassment protections, judges and feminist legal scholars have struggled to create a clear conceptual account of the harm sexual harassment inflicts. Many courts and scholars were content to justify sexual harassment law by arguing that it vindicates women’s interest in workplace equality; however, several feminist legal scholars revealed the inadequacy of this account by the late 1990s, suggesting instead that harassment should be understood as inflicting dignitary harm. The failure to reach consensus about sexual harassment law’s purpose appeared without significant consequence until courts began developing …

Erasing Boundaries: Masculinities, Sexual Minorities, And Employment Discrimination, Ann C. Mcginley

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article analyzes the application of employment discrimination law to sexual minorities-lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex individuals. It evaluates Title VII and state anti-discrimination laws' treatment of these individuals, and is the first article to use masculinities research, theoretical and empirical, to explain employment discrimination against sexual minorities.

While the Article concludes that new legislation would further the interests of sexual minorities, it posits that it is neither necessary nor sufficient to solving the employment discrimination problems of sexual minorities. A major problem lies in the courts' binary view of sex and gender, a view that identifies men and …

Federal Hill Protest Targets Landlords, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Melanie Shapiro Esq

Donna M. Hughes

Comment On James Boyd White's Book "Living Speech" (Princeton 2006), Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

Professor White introduces a new way for thinking about speech; a new measure for assessing it. He invites us to use speech carefully and responsibly, in what he calls “living speech.” Caring about the value of speech is not merely an aesthetic endeavor. As meaning making creatures, as “centers of meaning,” we should know how to recognize the speech that is essential to our humanness. Because living speech is “what enables any of us to be a person in the first place” (16).

How can we recognize living speech? The short answer that White gives us, which is indeed poetic …

Shattering The Equal Pay Act's Glass Ceiling, Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

This Article provides the first empirical and rhetorical analysis of all reported Equal Pay Act (EPA) federal appellate cases since the Act’s passage. This analysis shows that as women climb the occupational ladder, the manner in which many federal courts interpret the EPA imposes a wage glass ceiling, shutting out women in non-standardized jobs from its protection. This barrier is particularly troubling in light of data that shows that the gender wage gap increases for women as they achieve higher levels of professional status. The Article begins by examining data regarding the greater pay gap for women in upper-level jobs. …

False Imprisonment As A Tort In India, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

The tort of false imprisonment is one of the most severe forms of human rights violation, and this paper aims to define and to understand the concept of false imprisonment as a tort in India. It also seeks to know about the evolution of the notion of false imprisonment as a tort, with reference to Indian and foreign cases, and understand who and when can one be held liable for the tort of false imprisonment. It further deals with the remedies available for the said tort.

Teaching International Law: Lessons From Clinical Education: Introductory Remarks, Richard J. Wilson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Business-Like: The Supreme Court’S 2009-2010 Labor And Employment Decisions, Melissa R. Hart

Melissa R Hart

No abstract provided.

A Name Of One's Own: Gender And Symbolic Legal Personhood In The European Court Of Human Rights, Yofi Tirosh

Yofi Tirosh

Legal regulation of surnames provides a fascinating venue for examining how women negotiate their interests of autonomy and of stable personhood vis a vis a patriarchal naming structure. This is a study of 25 years of adjudication of surnames and personal status at the European Court of Human Rights. It explores the intricate ways in which legal norms governing surnames (and their judicial interpretation) sustain, shape, and reify social institutions such as gender, family, and citizenship.

As a pan European court, the adjudication of the ECHR operates within the framework of human rights. The universal characteristics of human rights principles …

Tribal Land Laws In Andhra Pradesh, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

No abstract provided.

Section 4 Of The Hindu Succession Act Of 1956, Hari Priya

Hari Priya

A brief write up in the form of a comprehensive article aiming to critically evaluate the Section 4 of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956. The law, as it stands amended, has not only brought about changes in the succession laws of Hindus, but has also paved the way for some positive modifications in the law of partition, alienation of property, inheritance and adoption, and the paper is an effort to evaluate this provision of the law.

Shattering The Equal Pay Act's Glass Ceiling, Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides the first empirical and rhetorical analysis of all reported Equal Pay Act (EPA) federal appellate cases since the Act’s passage. This analysis shows that as women climb the occupational ladder, the manner in which many federal courts interpret the EPA imposes a wage glass ceiling, shutting out women in non-standardized jobs from its protection. This barrier is particularly troubling in light of data that shows that the gender wage gap increases for women as they achieve higher levels of professional status. The Article begins by examining data regarding the greater pay gap for women in upper-level jobs. …