Law Commons^™

The Fourth Trimester, Saru M. Matambanadzo

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article introduces a new conceptual framework to the legal literature on pregnancy and pregnancy discrimination: the fourth trimester. The concept of a fourth trimester, drawn from maternal nursing and midwifery, refers to the crucial three to six month period after birth when many of the physical, psychological, emotional, and social effects of pregnancy continue. Giving this concept legal relevance extends the scope of pregnancy beyond the narrow period defined by conception, gestation, and birth and acknowledges that pregnancy is a relational process, not an individual event. In the United States, however, antidiscrimination law has failed to acknowledge the demands …

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 …

Verbal Sexual Harassment As Equality-Depriving Conduct, Keith R. Fentonmiller

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note argues that commentators like Browne and some courts have mischaracterized the harm of verbal sexual harassment as mere "offense." Rather, the true harm of a sexually hostile environment created by words and expressive conduct extends beyond offense, emotional distress, and economic displacement; at bottom, the harm is equality-deprivation.

Part II explains how a sexually hostile environment is equality-depriving by arguing that words which create a sexually hostile environment must be understood in historical and social context. Words can be used not only to communicate ideas but also to perform acts of coercion and sexual abuse. …

You've Built The Bridge, Why Don't You Cross It? A Call For State Labor Laws Prohibiting Private Employment Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation, David E. Morrison

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The call for legal reform to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been prevalent since at least the 1970s. Part I of this Note examines sexual orientation as a protected status at the federal and state level. Tracing the development of case law interpreting Title VII, it is evident that current federal laws have been of little use to gay men and lesbians. As a result, employment discrimination against homosexuals has been widespread. Part II of this Note discusses how the foundation for reform already has been created at the state level. This foundation began with state …

Introduction, Winn Newman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Symposium helps to explain that "comparable worth" is merely a euphemism for garden variety discrimination that violates express prohibitions of federal antidiscrimination law and severely limits job-related opportunities and benefits for women and minorities. Hopefully, the message of this Symposium will not be lost on reasonable people: that wage discrimination is unlawful and that our energies must now be turned to developing effective means for eliminating it.

Pay Equity--The Minnesota Experience, Nina Rothchild

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The concept of comparable worth is simple: jobs should be paid according to their value, whether the jobs are performed by men or by women. It says that pay should be based on the level of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions required to do the job. It is hard to believe that such a common sense idea could generate such an emotional reaction.

In this essay I will describe Minnesota's experience with pay equity at the state and local levels. Our experience leads us to believe that the arguments of the opposition are pure conjecture and that the scare …

Comparable Worth -- The Theory, Its Legal Foundation, And The Feasibility Of Implementation, Carin Ann Clauss

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

County of Washington v. Gunther was decided by the Supreme Court over five years ago. In that case, the Court, resolving a conflict among the circuits, ruled that sex-based wage discrimination claims could proceed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 without regard to the limiting "equal work" standard of the Equal Pay Act. Following this decision, it was generally assumed that the courts would become the major forum for redressing sex-based wage discrimination. The anticipated litigation explosion never took place. Few wage discrimination suits have been filed, and even fewer have been successful. What progress has …

Remedies For Wage Discrimination, Ruth Gerber Blumrosen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The thesis of this Article is that wage discrimination can be remedied by the federal courts through a process that is both practical and efficient. This can be done, without turning the federal courts into wage control agencies or bankrupting the nation's employers, by treating the problem of wage discrimination in precisely the same manner as other forms of discrimination are treated. Our experience with different types of wage discrimination now permits us to generalize about the types of remedies that are appropriate to correct those typical forms of wage discrimination that have now been fully identified.

Thoughts On Comparable Worth Litigation And Organizational Strategies, Nancy Gertner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

To watch the evolution of Title VIP is to watch the gradual constricting of a law that many had heralded as a tool of social change for women. Its passage represented a statement that the so-called free market had not worked for women. Women were denied access to higher paying and high-status positions. Even when a job was integrated, women's work was undervalued and their wages frequently depressed. With the passage of Title VII came the hope that the law would do what the market could not-break the cycle of discrimination.

Sex discrimination, in contrast with other forms of discrimination, …

The Attainment Of Pay Equity Between The Sexes By Legal Means: An Economic Analysis, George E. Johnson, Gary R. Solon

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this Article is to present an analysis of the gap between men's and women's wages with particular emphasis on the likely effects of various existing and proposed legal remedies. Part I sets out a simple "ideal" statistical model of wage determination. Its purpose is to identify carefully the potential impact of alternative legal remedies such as the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and proposed policies like comparable worth. This model is ideal in the sense that, although it could be estimated in principle, there is no data set currently available with which it could actually be estimated. …

Presumption Of Dependence In Workers' Compensation Death Benefits As A Denial Of Equal Protection, A. Russell Localio

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note will examine the sex bias prevalent in many workers' compensation statutes and the constitutionality of these statutes in light of recent Supreme Court decisions on sex discrimination. After this examination, alternative methods for effecting reform of the sex-biased death benefit provisions will be analyzed.

Self Defense For Women Lawyers: Enforcement Of Employment Rights, Giovanna M. Longo

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Employment and a concomitant opportunity to compete on the basis of individual merit for the rewards of achievement, whether they be money, power, prestige, personal satisfaction in a job well done, or the fulfillment of broad social aims, contribute to the assertion of legitimate human needs for independence and self-respect, and contribute to the expression and realization of individual potential. Women professionals and professional employers need to understand the applicable law regarding the proof of sex discrimination, what exceptions there are to prohibited sex discrimination, the procedures for enforcing that law and the benefits or detriments to be expected from …