Law and Society Commons^™

The Battle Over Bostock: Dueling Presidential Administrations & The Need For Consistent And Reliable Lgbt Rights, Regina L. Hillman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court released its opinion in the landmark civil rights case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. In the Bostock decision, the Court held that protections from employment discrimination “because of sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Prior to the Court’s decision, millions of LGBT employees had no protection from discriminatory treatment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and discrimination was pervasive.

America’S New Death Sentence: Lack Of Action To Protect Incarcerated People From Covid-19 Amounts To Cruel And Unusual Punishment, Jane Manwarring

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Laddy Curtis Valentine is a 69-year-old man suffering from high blood pressure, hypertension, nerve damage from a stroke, atrophy and weakness in the upper-left extremity, and limited ability to grip with his left hand. Richard Elvin King is a 73-year-old man with diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney failure, hyperlipidemia, and kidney disease. Mr. Valentine and Mr. King are just two of the 1,132 men imprisoned in the Wallace Pack Unit (“the Pack Unit”) in Grimes County, Texas. Like Mr. Valentine and Mr. King, approximately 800 incarcerated men housed in the Pack Unit are over the age of sixty-five, and …

Punishment And Prejudice: Reproductive Coercion In Immigration And Customs Enforcement Detention Centers, Inka Skłodowska Boehm

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Introduction

Pauline Binam arrived in the United States from Cameroon as a toddler, with no notion of the dangers her new home had in store. At twenty-eight years old, Pauline found herself separated from her daughter and awaiting deportation in the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. Pauline consented to what she believed was a minor procedure after suffering from irregular menstrual bleeding, an ailment likely triggered by her two-year confinement. Unbeknownst to Pauline, the doctor removed one of her fallopian tubes, barring her ability to give birth to more children. A year later, Pauline came forward following a …

A Labor Of Love: Finding Justice For Victims Of Workplace Sexual Harassment Excluded From Title Vii, Abigail M. Whitmore

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

I. Introduction

“Sexual harassment perpetuates the interlocked structure by which women have been kept sexually in thrall to men and at the bottom of the labor market. Two forces of American society converge: men’s control over women’s sexuality and capital’s control over employees’ work lives.”

I first began working with children as a college student in a part-time daycare position and eventually moved into a full-time nanny position after graduating. Working as a nanny was the perfect option for me at the time, as I was seeking temporary work in between my undergraduate education and law school. The opportunity also …

To Shatter The Glass Ceiling, Clean The Sticky Floor And Thaw The Frozen Middle: How Discrimination And Bias In The Career Pipeline Perpetuates The Gender Pay Gap, Rachel Dibenedetto

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

I. INTRODUCTION

Women crack the glass ceiling, but rarely pierce the surface. When women do shatter the glass, they do so in small strides, achieving minor victories. This glass, an invisible discriminatory barrier, the cultural predispositions filled with gender bias, inhibits women from career advancement from reaching the ceiling. Many refused to recognize this often unspoken phenomenon until the United States Department of Labor called for action. In enacting anti-discrimination legislation and bridging the gender education gap, women made remarkable headways in overcoming hurdles, yet the roots of the challenge still remain. How can women shatter the glass ceiling if …

The #Metoo Movement In Comparative Perspective, Dr. Joanne Sweeny

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Introduction.

The #MeToo movement is one of the most far-reaching social media movements in history and its impact can still be felt years later. As the hashtag in the name suggests, the #MeToo movement gained the bulk of its momentum on Twitter but the movement’s actual origins began on MySpace in 2006. Tarana Burke, a long-time activist, founded the nonprofit organization Just Be Inc., which serves survivors of sexual assault and harassment. Burke came up with the concept of “me too” in 1997 when she was counseling a 13-year-old survivor of sexual abuse at a youth camp. Burke states that …

Onlyemployees: Ending The Misclassification Of Digital Sex Workers In The Shared And Gig Economy, Mary Marston

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

I. Introduction

Mia Khalifa was only paid a total of $12,000 in shooting fees during her ten-month career in the adult film industry, but she remains one of the most searched adult film stars of all time. Social and monetary discrepancies between adult film stars’ payment and the revenue made by pornography studios parallel the difficulties other sex workers face, like exotic dancers and prostitutes, especially in terms of their misclassification as independent contractors instead of employees.

In addition to this misclassification, sex workers face a lack of financial and physical protections in traditional sex work. These lack of protections, …