Digital Commons Network^™

Voices Raised, Issue 12, University Of Dayton. Women's Center

Women’s Center Newsletter

Included in this issue: Enhancing the Climate for Women; Gay? Fine by me; Wisdom from some of UD’s busiest women; Don’t forget…Mother’s Day; WGS Moves Forward; Mentoring Program: Continuing to Grow; Connecting to UD; Committee strives for feminist voices to be heard; Women’s roles may not be as expected; Fighting oppression, one pornographic image at a time; Music can be a source of empowerment or degradation or women.

He Said-She Said: On Credibility And The New Reason, Nancy Rourke

ExpressO

The traditional wisdom in the field of evidence holds that, if there is a direct contradiction in the testimony of two witnesses, one of them must be lying. The jury is to discover which version is more credible. The traditional wisdom is wrong. This article uses an actual criminal case to establish that a direct contradiction in testimony can arise from another source - a fundamental difference of conceptual frame. In this case, both witnesses were telling the truth as they knew it, but were talking past one another. Words that were 100% true in the victim's conceptual frame were …

Paid Family Leave In American Law Schools: Findings And Open Questions, Laura T. Kessler

ExpressO

There exists a substantial literature on the status of women in the legal profession, including studies on women students’ experiences in law schools, gender bias on law school faculties, and family leave policies and practices among legal employers. However, no recent study examines the family leave policies and practices in American law schools. This study seeks to fill that gap. Its findings are threefold. First, almost three quarters of law schools provide wage replacement during a family leave that is more generous than required by federal law. Second, there is a positive relationship between teaching at top-tier and private law …

Homeless Mothers' Perceptions Of Parenting In Shelters, Sarah E. Young Whitaker Dnsc, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

Descriptions of parenting in a homeless shelter were obtained from nine single mothers housed in one of two shelters in a major southwestern border metroplex. Case study methodology was used to obtain their perspectives on parenting in this unique context. Content analysis was used to organize and analyze emerging themes. Major themes that emerged from the study were (a) a lack of autonomy, (b) gaining access to material resources, (c) lack of privacy, (d) constant change and insecurity in the environment, (e) differing values, and (e) psychosocial support.

In The Best Interest Of The Child, Ellen L. Buckwalter

ExpressO

Each year more than 200,000 children in the United States are abducted by family members. When a child is abducted across international borders, the difficulties are compounded. Since the late 1970s, The Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues has been contacted in approximately 16,000 cases involving children who were either abducted from the United States or prevented from returning to the U.S. by one of their parents.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Convention”) adopted on October 24, 1980, reflects a worldwide concern about the harmful effects that parental kidnapping has on children …

The Punishment Of Dixie Shanahan: Is There Justice For Battered Women Who Kill?, Leigh Goodmark

ExpressO

The article explores the prevailing theories justifying criminal punishment in the United States through the lens of the case of Dixie Shanahan, an Iowa woman who was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment for killing her abusive spouse after nineteen years of battering. The article begins with a detailed examination of the life of Dixie Shanahan and places her within the context of the literature on battered women who kill. The piece then looks at both retributivist and utilitarian justifications for punishment and concludes that only a retributivist rationale justifies the punishment of Ms. Shanahan and other battered women who kill, …

The Children Of Science: Property, People, Or Something In Between?, Star Q. Lopez

ExpressO

How should states classify embryos? The war has often waged between two classifications, people versus property. But what if a state assumed something in between, finding the embryo to be a potential person entitled to special respect? If a state adopted this position, how would the law affect medical research?

Presuming embryos constitute potential persons, the debate would continue with how to define “special respect.” The status of a potential person runs along a spectrum between property and personhood. How one defines “special respect” determines where the potential person falls along this spectrum. Special respect would create a spectrum of …

To Protect Or To Serve: Confidentiality, Client Protection And Domestic Violence, Dana Harrington-Conner

ExpressO

This article addresses the ethical dilemma of whether and when the attorney for an adult victim of domestic violence can or should disclose confidential communications for the protection of his or her own client.

Advocates maintain that domestic violence is the single major cause of injury to women in the United States. The risks are undeniable. An attorney representing a client who remains in or voluntarily returns to a violent relationship may confront conflicting ethical duties because it is difficult, if not impossible, for the attorney to determine which cases will end in further violence and which will not.

This …

Pregnancy In Pieces: The Potential Gap In State And Federal Provided Pregnancy Leave, Sarah Stewart Holland

ExpressO

This Comment describes a New Jersey Supreme Court in detail, along with the current state of both federal and state leave laws and federal and state pregnancy discrimination laws. Next, this Comment argues that it is the interaction of federal and state leave laws that most often creates a gap in leave and that this gap produces a disparate impact on pregnant employees, which violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. It also examines the most common misinterpretations courts make when examining pregnant employees’ requests for recovery under anti-discrimination laws. In conclusion, this Comment advocates for the treatment of pregnancy as one …

Gender Equality, Social Values And Provocation Law In The United States, Canada And Australia, Caroline A. Forell

ExpressO

In this article I examine and compare the partial defense of provocation as it applies to domestic homicide in Australia, Canada, and the United States on both the gendered-male basis of jealous rage and gendered-female basis of fear. I explain why substantive equality, prevalent under Canadian constitutional law, has not resulted in woman-friendly provocation rules in Canada and the United States and why Australia is the leader in incorporating substantive equality into its provocation doctrine. I conclude that the main reason why some Australian jurisdictions have abolished provocation and others have female-friendly versions of the doctrine is that, unlike Canada …

The Problematic Of Generating Anthropological Knowledge: A Case Study Of A Health And Gender Development Project In Rural Egypt, Tonje Holm

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how boarder guards limits the amount of knowledge an anthropologist really can obtain doing research. The research is based upon a concrete case study in Egypt where local and national government bodies "border guard" how knowledge is gained within a development project. This research shows how although anthropological knowledge and research provide a body of theory within which policy is created the policy should come with a "health warning". Field research undoubtedly give more information than so called "armchair" research, but it is far from giving the policy makers the full picture of the society, or project …

Women And War: A Bibliography Of Recent Works, Annette Demers

International Journal of Legal Information

Since the end of the Cold War, a number of regional conflicts worldwide have devastated innocent populations. The conflicts in Rwanda and in the Balkans come to mind as prominent examples. With these developments the literature about women and war has proliferated.

In particular, there is a growing emphasis on the impact of war on women. The literature emphasizes a number of concerns. In most countries, women form the center of the family and bear the economic and social burden of keeping their families together throughout times of conflict and upheaval. Women's essential role in childbearing and procreation makes them …

Violence Against Women: An Obstacle To Equality, Sheila Dauer

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Man-Made Menopause, Madeline Horwitz

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

In this study I suggest that there are three distinct time periods mark new developments in society’s understanding of menopause, Victorian America in the mid and late nineteenth century, mid-twentieth century America, and contemporary America. This is the case not only in terms of advances in biological science, but also the ways in which the medical establishment has viewed menopause has also changed, and in terms of changes in prevalent gender assumptions. In this paper I hope to expose the ways science, history, and society has medicalized menopause, and the ways in which menopause has been viewed by individual women, …

The Perceptions Of Pornography On Colby College Campus, Jessica Seymour, Elizabeth Wyckoff

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

No abstract provided.

Lessons Unlearned: Women Offenders, The Ethics Of Care, And The Promise Of Restorative Justice, Marie A. Failinger

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article focuses on the reality that women's relationality, and particularly their relationships with men in their lives, profoundly affects the behavior that lands them in the criminal justice system. The author argues that restorative justice, which is essentially grounded on an ethical understanding of crime and treats the offender an as interacting subject/agent, is a necessary avenue of response to most women offenders' crimes, and that corrections must go beyond a psychological approach that treats crimes as a form of illness, or a systematic model which attempts primarily to rectify deficits in women's social situation.

Reconceptualizing Domestic Violence In India: Economic Abuse And The Need For Broad Statutory Interpretation To Promote Women's Fundamental Rights, Pami Vyas

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article explores the reconceptualization of domestic violence in India through an analysis of the economic abuse provision of the recently passed Domestic Violence Act. The author argues that although India has taken a significant step towards advancing women's rights by characterizing economic abuse as a form of domestic violence, effective implementation of the law requires a broad interpretation of the economic abuse provision. To be consistent with the purpose of the statute and India's constitutional and international human rights obligations, "economic abuse" must be interpreted broadly to include the deprivation of a woman's control over her economic resources. Economic …

A Sign Of "Weakness"? Disrupting Gender Certainties In The Implementation Of Security Council Resolution 1325, Dianne Otto

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article will examine whether efforts to implement the Resolution suggest new ways to address the old problems: the reliance on stereotyped gender representations to rally women in the cause of peace and the vexed strategic question of how movements for transformative change might influence the mainstream institutions of international law and politics. The first concerns the way that the category of gender is deployed by women's peace activism and by international institutions as they respond to it. The author’s question is whether it is possible to rally women to promote peace, while also challenging the gender dichotomies that underpin …

Differences In The Effects Of Social Context On Emotional Responding, Cheryl L. Hahn, Yulia E. Chentsova Dutton

Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)

This study compares the effects of social cues on emotional experiences of men and women. Literature suggests that emotional responses are influenced by the presence and expressiveness of other individuals (Hess, Banse, & Kappas, 1995; Jacobs, Manstead, & Fischer, 2001; Fridlund, 1991). We examined whether social cues influence the experience of emotions differently for men and women. Research on gender differences in self-construal (Cross & Madson, 1997) led us to expect that women’s own emotional reactions would be more sensitive to emotional cues from other individuals than men’s.

Women And The "New" Corporate Governance - Foreword: A Symposium Exploring The Role And Impact Of Women In A Changing Corporate Environment, Lisa M. Fairfax, Paula A. Monopoli

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

At The Top Of The Pyramid: Lessons From The Alpha Women And The Elite Eight, Jayne W. Barnar

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures: This Is Not Just Women's Work, Cheryl L. Wade

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Class Ceiling, Naomi Cahn, Michael Selmi

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women Executives In Gladiator Corporate Cultures: The Behavioral Dynamics Of Gender, Ego, And Power, Marleen A. O'Connor

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women And The New Corporate Governance: Pathways For Obtaining Positions Of Corporate Leadership, Cindy A. Schipani, Terry Morehead Dworkin, Angel Kwolek-Folland, Virginia Maurer

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making In-Roads To Corporate General Counsel Positions: It's Only A Matter Of Time?, Lisa H. Nicholson

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Sec Enforcement Attorney To Commissioner, Roberta S. Karmel

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening The Doors To Women? An Examination Of Recent Developments In Asylum And Refugee Law, Marissa Farrone

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The United States As Global Sheriff: Using Unilateral Sanctions To Combat Human Trafficking, Janie Chuang

Michigan Journal of International Law

By situating the U.S. rise to dominance in historical and political context, this Article underscores the significance of U.S. unilateralism for international anti-trafficking law and policy.

Voices Of Women: Telling The Truth Through Art Making, Alice Pennisi

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

On Wednesdays, when the last period of the school day is finished, the students trickle out of room 412 of Burnham High School and the young women enter who have been waiting outside. They immediately push all the desks to the side or back walls, leaving a large open space. Then each carries a chair toward the front of the room, creating a circle. Someone closes the door, and they begin to talk with one another. Thus begins a weekly meeting of Voices of Women (VOW), a group comprised mainly of high school girls who create collaborative artwork based on …