Law Commons^™

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 …

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. …

From False Paternalism To False Equality: Judicial Assaults On Feminist Community, Illinois 1869-1895, Frances Olsen

Michigan Law Review

This essay will examine the "equal treatment" versus "special treatment" for women issue as it arose in Illinois in the late nineteenth century. In 1869 the Illinois Supreme Court barred Myra Bradwell from the practice of law on the basis that she was a married woman, and in 1870 it reaffirmed its exclusion of women in In re Bradwell, the state decision the United States Supreme Court upheld in Bradwell v. Illinois. This denial of equal treatment to women, especially the concurring opinion by United States Supreme Court Justice Bradley, appears to many to represent paternalism at its …

Sex Discrimination In Newscasting, Leslie S. Gielow

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the current judicial deference to viewer surveys used by television stations in newscasting employment decisions is unwarranted. Part I explores how different treatment of women newscasters constitutes sex-plus discrimination. Part II demonstrates that viewer surveys almost always reflect sexual stereotypes that are impermissible under title VII, and argues that such surveys should be presumptively inadmissible as evidence to rebut a claim of sex discrimination. Indeed, mere use of these surveys may in and of itself establish a prima facie case of sex discrimination.

Part III contends that sex discrimination in the news industry resulting from the …

Towards A Feminist Jurisprudence, Ann C. Scales

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pregnancy And Hiring Discrimination, April L. Dowler

West Virginia Law Review

The employer looks over the application on his desk. The applicant has the right educational requirements; her references are impressive; she has experience which would greatly benefit her in the position. She looks like a good prospect. The employer buzzes his secretary and requests that the applicant be shown to his office for an interview. As the applicant enters the room he rises to meet her. Half way out of his chair he stops. Printed on the front of the woman's shirt are the letters B-A-B-Y with an arrow pointing down to the slight bulge at the woman's stomach. Politely …

Sex Discrimination: Theories And Defenses Under Title Vii And Burwell V. Eastern Airlines, Inc., Debra G. Archer

West Virginia Law Review

Following the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 dealing with equal opportunity and employment discrimination, there arose a large body of case-law litigating Title VII issues and a large body of articles dissecting the cases and issues. Within this area, different methods for proving Title VII violations and different types of defenses developed. Almost inevitably, confusion arose concerning the applicability of specific defenses to specific types of Title VII violations. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals attempted to resolve some of this confusion in a sex discrimination case captioned Burwell v. Eastern Airlines, Inc. In …

Civil Rights Act Of 1964 - Title Vii - Sex Discrimination - Pregnancy - Defenses, Margaret L. Cohen

Duquesne Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has held that an airline's employment policy mandating immediate unpaid maternity leave for all flight attendants upon discovery of pregnancy is sex discrimination but is justified by safety considerations.

Harriss v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 649 F.2d 670 (9th Cir. 1980).

Veterans' Preference Statutes: Do They Really Discriminate Against Women, Pat Labbadia Iii

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights - Sex Discrimination - Title Ix Of The Education Amendments Of 1972 - Implied Right Of Action, Kathy Condo-Caritis

Duquesne Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a private right of action can be implied for victims of sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677 (1979).

An Empirical Analysis Of The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, James A. Burns Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will first examine the legislative history of the ECOA to discover (1) the impetus for its enactment; (2) the views of proponents and opponents of the legislation concerning the presence of credit discrimination, its proper cure, and the proposed provisions of the bills introduced to deal with the problem; and (3) the congressional intent as to the use of various credit-granting factors described by the Act. Regulation B will then be similarly examined to find out how the broad mandates of the ECOA have been made concrete for the use of creditors. Finally, the article will focus on …

Constitutional Law—Sex Discrimination Under The Equal Rights Amendment—Marchioro V. Chaney, 90 Wn. 2d 298, 582 P.2d 487 (1978), Prob. Juris. Noted, 99 S. Ct. 718 (1979), Irene Hecht

Washington Law Review

Two of several statutes governing the composition and organization of the major political parties in Washington, R.C.W. § 29.42.020 and R.C.W. § 29.42.030, require that certain pairs of party representatives consist of one man and one woman. Following an intraparty dispute various interested persons filed suit, challenging, inter alia, the constitutionality of R.C.W. §§ 29.42.020-.030 under Washington's Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The trial court granted the plaintiffs summary judgment on this claim. In a five to four decision the Washington Supreme Court reversed, upholding the constitutionality of both statutes under the ERA because they did not discriminate on the basis …

Equality Between The Sexes In The 1980'S, Nancy S. Erickson

Cleveland State Law Review

Any discussion of equality under the law must necessarily revolve around the equal protection clause. Therefore, this discussion will indicate first where equal protection analysis has succeeded ineffectively dealing with sex discrimination and the significance of the judicial policy behind these successes. Secondly, the failures of the equal protection clause will be examined with specific attention to the five methods in which the equal protection clause has failed to eliminate laws discriminating on the basis of sex. Finally, the failures of the equal protection clause will be illustrated as starting points for work in the area of sexual equality in …

Equality Between The Sexes In The 1980'S, Nancy S. Erickson

Cleveland State Law Review

Any discussion of equality under the law must necessarily revolve around the equal protection clause. Therefore, this discussion will indicate first where equal protection analysis has succeeded ineffectively dealing with sex discrimination and the significance of the judicial policy behind these successes. Secondly, the failures of the equal protection clause will be examined with specific attention to the five methods in which the equal protection clause has failed to eliminate laws discriminating on the basis of sex. Finally, the failures of the equal protection clause will be illustrated as starting points for work in the area of sexual equality in …

Sexual Harassment And Title Vii: The Foundation For The Elimination Of Sexual Cooperation As An Employment Condition, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Ten years after the enactment of Title VII, the federal judiciary confronted its first Title VII case in which sexual harassment was the primary allegation. In the next three-and-one-half years, six more claims of sexual harassment reached federal district courts, 4 and three federal circuit courts of appeal reviewed lower court holdings.

Neither these cases nor the considerable journalistic and academic attention they received reveals a consensus regarding the appropriate application of Title VII to cases of sexual harassment. This Note, therefore, examines the application of Title VII to the problem of sexual harassment and suggests a coherent framework for …

Preferential Economic Treatment For Women: Some Constitutional And Practical Implications Of Kahn V. Shevin, Margaret E. Clark

Vanderbilt Law Review

The apparent willingness on the part of three members of the Supreme Court to sustain legislation granting economic benefits to a selected subgroup of women, while failing to deal with the similar racially suspect classification issue in Defunis, is simultaneously puzzling and disturbing. The key to the result reached in Kahn may be the size of the benefit involved, or the fact that a state tax statute was involved;"' yet the underlying principles in the two cases are logically indistinguishable and the differing approaches taken by certain members of the Court in the two cases are difficult to reconcile...

Thus, …

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.

The Michigan Abortion Refusal Act, G. Michael White

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the United States Supreme Court handed down the landmark decisions of Roe v. Wade andDoe v. Bolton, which placed constitutional limitations, on state regulation of abortions, efforts have been made on the federal and state levels to blunt the effect of those cases. One prevalent reaction has been the enactment of state "conscience clause" legislation, such as the Michigan Abortion Refusal Act, which seeks to extend to all hospitals the right to refuse admission of abortion patients. This legislative note will consider whether the Michigan conscience clause is legally necessary to ensure the right it seeks to …

Mandatory Maternity Leaves And The Equal Protection Clause, Carole A. Masters

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …