Law and Gender Commons^™

The Women Feminism Forgot: Rural And Working-Class White Women In The Era Of Trump, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

Surrogacy, Equal Status And Social Welfare Benefits, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

Pregnancy As A ‘Personal Circumstance’? A Case Study Of Equality Jurisprudence Under The Canadian Charter Of Rights, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This article examines the recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Miceli-Riggins v Attorney General of Canada as an example of the approach which the Canadian courts are taking to the interpretation of s. 15 of the Charter of Rights (in the area of social benefits) following the Supreme Court’s recent attempts to ‘restate’ that law in a series of cases. It argued that, whatever the intention of the Supreme Court, the restatement of the law has created general confusion in the lower courts and tribunals. In addition, in cases concerning social benefits, the Court’s statements, in cases …

Regulating The Family: The Impact Of Pro-Family Policy Making Assessments On Women And Non-Traditional Families, Robin S. Maril

Robin S. Maril

Beginning in the 1980s, pro-family advocates lobbied the Reagan administration to take a stronger, more direct role in enforcing traditional family norms through agency rulemaking. In 1986 the White House Working Group on the Family published a report entitled, The Family: Preserving America’s Future, detailing what its authors perceived to be the biggest threats to the “American household of persons related by blood, marriage or adoption – the traditional . . . family.” These threats included a lax sexual culture carried over from the 1960s, resulting in rising divorce rates, children born “out of wedlock,” and increased acceptance of “alternative …

Race, Rat Bites And Unfit Mothers: How Media Discourse Informs Welfare Legislation Debate, Lucy A. Williams

Lucy A. Williams

This article exposes and critiques the media images of poor women and children that drive legislative debate in social assistance, or welfare public policy issues in the United States. It explores the impact of media images on law-making by focusing on three statutory time periods: 1935, when the Aid to Dependent Children program was initially enacted as part of the Social Security Act; 1967, when the first mandatory work requirements were added to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, and the mid-1990s, when states began implementing widely divergent categorical eligibility requirements that restrict benefits in an attempt to …