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Full-Text Articles in Law and Gender

Expectant Fathers, Abortion, And Embryos, Dara Purvis Feb 2016

Expectant Fathers, Abortion, And Embryos, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

One thread of abortion criticism, arguing that gender equality requires that men be allowed to terminate legal parental status and obligations, has reinforced the stereotype of men as uninterested in fatherhood. As courts facing disputes over stored pre-embryos weigh the equities of allowing implantation of the pre-embryos, this same gender stereotype has been increasingly incorporated into a legal balancing test, leading to troubling implications for ART and family law.


A Female Disease: The Unintentional Gendering Of Fibromyalgia Social Security Claims, Dara Purvis Sep 2015

A Female Disease: The Unintentional Gendering Of Fibromyalgia Social Security Claims, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

Social Security disability claims are not supposed to be decided based on the gender of the applicant. Reliance on the apparently neutral mechanism of clinical medical evidence, however, has a disproportionate impact on women bringing disability claims based on fibromyalgia. Recognizing and identifying disability has been delegated by Congress and the Social Security Administration almost entirely to physicians, based upon a misguided and mistaken belief that clinical medical evidence evaluated by a trained physician will answer with certainty whether an individual claimant is capable of working. Fibromyalgia, a diffuse syndrome characterized by excess pain that is overwhelmingly diagnosed in women …


Overruling The Jury: Duncan V. Gmc And Appellate Treatment Of Hostile Work Environment Judgments, Dara Purvis Sep 2015

Overruling The Jury: Duncan V. Gmc And Appellate Treatment Of Hostile Work Environment Judgments, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

In 2002, the Eighth Circuit reversed a one million dollar jury award to the plaintiff in a sexual harassment suit against General Motors Corporation. This reversal demonstrates the danger of appellate review of such verdicts, limiting sexual harassment verdicts to the lowest common denominator in that circuit.


Female Law Students, Gendered Self-Evaluation, And The Promise Of Positive Psychology, Dara Purvis Sep 2015

Female Law Students, Gendered Self-Evaluation, And The Promise Of Positive Psychology, Dara Purvis

Dara Purvis

For the last several decades, studies and surveys have shown that female law students perform worse and feel worse about their experiences in law school than do male students. Hidden in average figures, however, is a subgroup of female students who thrive. Positive psychology, focusing on what traits make people happy rather than how to alleviate depression, provides novel ideas of how to improve legal education for women without making accommodations specifically targeting gender.