Law Commons^™

Women, Re-Entry And Everyday Life: Time To Work?, Dina R. Rose, Venezia Michalsen, Dawn Wiest, Anupa Fabian

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study focuses on women at various stages of re-entry into the community after involvement with the criminal justice system. In particular, it takes a close look at how the participants in the study manage their time in the face of the types of competing demands that are all too common to most people.

Public Policy, Women, And Confinement: A Plea For Reasonableness, Peter M. Carlson

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This veteran correctional administrator reviews the explosion of numbers of female offenders confined in the United States today. The article explores the myriad causes and effects of this shift in public policy and notes the negative impact of today's policy outcomes on individual offenders, correctional systems, and our society. The author argues for a modification of policy to a more rational approach to judicial sentencing.

Women And The Death Penalty: Racial Disparities And Differences, Harry Greenlee, Shelia P. Greenlee

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The death penalty in America has been studied, discussed, and written about extensively. The vast majority of researchers, however, have focused their study of the death penalty, or capital punishment, on male prisoners. This article examines the data related to women on death row since 1973, with particular attention to similar problems that have been documented for men, while highlighting racial differences and/or racial disparities where found. The subjects were 157 women who received death row sentences, forty-nine women currently on death row, and the eleven women executed since 1973. The data demonstrated that some racial disparities do exist with …

Women In Federal Prison: Pathways In, Programs Out, Kim White

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

One of the fastest growing populations in most correctional systems is female offenders and the impact of these rising numbers is significant. The author speaks to the rising female population numbers, the types of crimes and behaviors that lead to their incarceration, the characteristics of female offenders, the impact their incarceration has on their families and children, and how gender responsive programming is pivotal to their effective and successful reentry into society.

Women In Prison: International Problems And Human Rights Based Approaches To Reform, Jenni Gainsborough

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The growth in prison populations is a world-wide phenomenon, and within the overall growth rate, many countries are seeing a disproportionate rate of increase among women. Despite differences in culture and resources, women everywhere face similar problems in prison systems, which have been designed primarily by and for men. These include sexual abuse, lack of appropriate medical care, loss of children and breakdown of families. The United States leads the world in both the overall size of its prison population and its rate of incarceration. Advocates for reform are increasingly turning to international human rights laws, standards and norms to …

The Interaction Of Customary Law And Microfinance: Women's Entry Into The World Economy, Shana Hofstetter

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This note examines the complicated relationship between microfinance and customary law. Microfinance, the practice of giving small, collateral-free loans to the poorest members of society, has gained great popularity in the last thirty years. These loan programs specifically target women and use women's traditional emphasis on groups to ensure success. Customary law can hinder microfinance ventures because of the restrictions these laws place on women's roles and responsibilities. Case studies on the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and Bangladesh explore how individual customary laws can hinder microfinance programs and women's micro-businesses. This note also discusses how microfinance programs act as catalysts of …

The Caged Canary, Elizabeth Alexander

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The United States has experienced an explosion in the number of people in prison, an explosion that cannot be attributed to changes in the crime rate, but rather reflects changes in public policy, particularly sentencing policy regarding drug crimes. These changes have had a devastating impact on African-American communities. The changes have also adversely affected the social, economic, and political culture of the nation as a whole. The rate of increase in incarceration for women prisoners has been disproportionately high, although women are generally imprisoned for non-violent crimes and have lower recidivism rates than men. Once in prison, women are …

Hard Labor: The Legal Implications Of Shackling Female Inmates During Pregnancy And Childbirth, Geraldine Doetzer

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Despite international human rights guidelines that prohibit the practice, thirty-eight states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently allow corrections officials to shackle pregnant inmates during the third trimester of pregnancy. Of these, twenty-three states and the Bureau also allow restraints to be used during active labor. Only two state legislatures, Illinois and California, have addressed the issue of using physical restraints on pregnant inmates; the vast majority of states rely on corrections officials to craft policy.

This article analyzes both states' justifications for shackling policies as well as the Constitutional and human rights arguments that have been posed by …

Red Light, Green Light: Assessing The Stop And Go In The Advancement Of Women In The Legal And Business Sectors, Megan Erb

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The purpose of this note is to identify the problems professional women have in building a career while caring for a family, and to provide the basis for creating a solution. Part I of this note addresses the various types of problems that force women out of the workplace, as well as the difficulties women have in reentering the job market. Part II of this note compares the alternative work schedules offered in the legal and business communities. Part III focuses on the success the business firms have had, with the help of business schools, in finding a practical solution …

Undressing Difference: The Hijab In The West, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

On March 15, 2006, French President Jacques Chirac signed into law an amendment to his country’s education statute, banning the wearing of "conspicuous" signs of religious affiliation in public schools. Prohibited items included "a large cross, a veil, or skullcap." The ban was expressly introduced by lawmakers as an application of the principle of government neutrality, "du principe de laïcité." Opponents of the law viewed it primarily as an intolerant assault against the hijab, a head and neck wrap worn by many Muslim women around the world. In Politics of the Veil, Professor Joan Wallach Scott …

Female Genital Mutilation: Exploring Strategies For Ending Ritualized Torture; Shaming, Blaming, And Utilizing The Convention Against Torture, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

The intent of this article is to graphically describe female genital mutilation (FGM); discuss the background of FGM and its health, psychological, and social implications; propose some workable solutions to ending FGM; and raise the level of awareness of the pain and suffering of women around the world. In part, this article will discuss invoking the Convention against Torture against those nations unwilling to end this horrific practice. There is also a caveat to this article: the author acknowledges that discussing solutions to the practice of FGM is not a simplistic and straight-forward endeavor. Solutions to ending FGM are as …

The First (Black) Lady, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I examines the role of First Lady, which has been undertheorized in legal scholarship, and how it promotes privileged white femininity, and in so doing, upholds patriarchy. Part II builds upon that discussion, explaining that the gender and racial norms that contribute to the traditional First Lady trope exemplify the intertwined nature of racism and sexism, which have been used to justify Black subordination. This section also examines how African Americans have embraced gender conformance as a way of attaining acceptance and status within the existing social order, specifically through the "Black lady" construct, which the campaign invoked to …

The Heart Of The Game: Putting Race And Educational Equity At The Center Of Title Ix, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article examines how race and educational equity issues shape women's sports experiences.

In Supreme Judgment Of The Poor: The Role Of The United States Supreme Court In Welfare Law And Policy, Bridgette Baldwin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the major Supreme Court rulings since the late 1960s that have directly addressed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), commonly known as welfare. The Supreme Court decided cases, such as King v. Smith, Shapiro v. Thompson, and Goldberg v. Kelly, in favor of welfare recipients. The outcomes of these cases suggest that while the Supreme Court viewed welfare policy as a negotiation between federal and state governments, it reserved a special role for the judicial branch in protecting equal rights. The judicial understanding of the relationship between federal and state government power within welfare policy ranged …

The Illusion Of Transformative Conflict Resolution: Mediating Domestic Violence In Nicaragua, Raquel Aldana, Leticia Saucedo

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Rape At Rome: Feminist Interventions In The Criminalization Of Sex-Related Violence In Positive International Criminal Law, Janet Halley

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article examines the work of organized feminism in the formation of new international criminal tribunals over the course of the 1990s. It focuses on the statutes establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It offers a description of the evolving organizational style of feminists involved in the legislative processes leading to the establishment of these courts, and a description of their reform agenda read against the outcomes in each court-establishing statute. At each stage, the Article counts up the feminist victories and defeats, …

Critical Acts Of Recognition: Reading Law Rhetorically, Sarah Burgess

Studio for Law and Culture

On July 11, 2002, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) set the scene for a significant shift in the way the United Kingdom legally defines sex and the status of transsexual and transgender people (trans people) within British society. The ECHR, in Christine Goodwin v. The United Kingdom, found that British laws defining sex according to a set of biological criteria applied at birth prevented trans people from enjoying the full spectrum of rights guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights. Barring individuals from changing their sex for legal purposes on official documents, such as birth certificates …

Irrational Exuberance For Babies: The Taste For Heterosexuality And Its Conspicuous Reproduction, Jose M. Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

This article targets a flying buttress of normative heterosexuality: its physical reproduction via procreation and its symbolic propagation through parents' pre-natal preferences for heterosexuality in future children. While the parental "taste for heterosexuality" is often asserted for the sake of future children themselves, this justification overlooks the role of parental self-interest, including anticipated social gains to parents from heterosexuality in children. Hence the taste sets the stage both for sexual orientation-based abuse of future children and the devaluation of sexual minority adults. Courts too have a taste for heterosexuality, shown here in two state court cases denying gays and lesbians …

Oregon Partner Law Blocked, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Unifying Disparate Treatment (Really), Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The Article will proceed in three parts. Part I will show the fragmented state of current disparate treatment law. Part II will demonstrate why this fragmentation is problematic as a normative matter, and why the I99I Civil Rights Act framework is superior to the Price Waterhouse and McDonnell Douglas frameworks. Part III will point the way toward a unified disparate treatment doctrine, in which all litigants will use the 1991 Act framework.

The Evolution Of Women's Rights In Inheritance, Kristine S. Knaplund

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The Evolution of Women's Rights in Inheritance explores the period shortly after the passage of the Married Women's Property Acts, when women had increasing economic power and, in many jurisdictions, the right to execute wills without their husbands' consent. Through original research and comparisons with earlier and later studies, the author discovered ways in which women differed significantly from men. In addition, the author found an astonishing amount of litigation, including will contests, objections to accounts, and actions to quiet title in over twenty percent of the wills. This study fills in gaps in the legal literature in women's history …

The Hpv Vaccination: Necessary Of Evil, Pauline Self

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This Note discusses the recent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, whether the vaccine should be mandated for minors and the vaccine's legal, and medical implications. Presently, there exists a unique opportunity to significantly reduce the rate of HPV-associated cervical cancer through anti-viral vaccination strategies using the HPV vaccine. Despite the apparent public health benefits of the HPV vaccine, the desire of some lawmakers to mandate the vaccine for schoolgirls has placed it at the center of political, medical, and moral jousting throughout the country. The multiple state and federal proposals as well as a state bill signed into law making the …

Unchaste And Incredible: The Use Of Gendered Conceptions Of Honor In Impeachment, Julia Simon-Kerr

Faculty Articles and Papers

This paper demonstrates that the American rules for impeaching witnesses developed against a cultural background that equated a woman's honor, and thus her credibility, with her sexual virtue. The idea that a woman's chastity informs her credibility did not originate in rape trials and the confusing interplay between questions of consent and sexual history. Rather, gendered notions of honor so permeated American legal culture that attorneys routinely attempted to impeach female witnesses by invoking their sexual histories in cases involving such diverse claims as title to land, assault, arson, and wrongful death. But while many courts initially accepted the notion …

'No Right To Judge': Feminism And The Judiciary In Third Republic France, Sara L. Kimble

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ladies' Health Protective Association: Lay Lawyers And Urban Cause Lawyering, Felice J. Batlan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Flood Of Pregnancy Discrimination Cases: Balancing The Interests Of Pregnant Women And Their Employers, Jennifer Yue

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reproductive Injustice: An Analysis Of Nicaragua's Complete Abortion Ban, Jocelyn E. Getgen

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"It's Not Ok": New Zealand's Efforts To Eliminate Violence Against Women, Jeanmarie Fenrich, Jorge Contesse

Crowley Mission Reports

Over the last decade, New Zealand has made significant efforts to address an acute social problem—violence against women. In New Zealand, it is estimated that one in three women has been a victim of domestic violence. In an effort to combat the problem, New Zealand has enacted legislation and regulations which aim to prevent and eliminate domestic violence. It has also created visible public education campaigns calling upon people to stop “family violence” as it is called in New Zealand.

The Red Booklet On Feminist Equality. Instead Of A Manifesto, Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

If feminist legal theory were to face its legacy today, it would see that its tremendous value rests in its means more than in its ends. True, it has produced palpable results for its promoters domestically. It satisfied many feminists' discrete incremental requests, from Women's History Month to a limited right to bear or beget. While feminism partially satisfied well-identified gendered demands, it has ignored their “base” or frame. I argue that it has ignored basic calls for social justice. As shown here, how gendered demands are satisfied depends on whether basic demands for food and shelter have even been …

A Quest For Acceptance: The Real Id Act And The Need For Comprehensive Gender Recognition Legislation In The United States, Jason Allen

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article maintains that the Real ID Act highlights the need for U.S. federal gender recognition legislation in the mold of the GRA. Part II offers background into the psychology of transgender people, explaining how the medical community views and treats this "condition." Part III illustrates the fundamental value of gender recognition rights and examines the inadequacy of U.S. statutory and case law. This discussion then traces the evolution of the GRA in the United Kingdom as the culmination of a mandate from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Part IV argues that the United States should adopt a …