Law Commons^™

Masculinities And Feminist Legal Theory, Nancy Dowd

Nancy Dowd

Men, patriarchy and masculine characteristics have predominantly been examined within feminist theory as a source of power, domination, inequality and subordination. Various theories of inequality have been developed by feminists to challenge and reveal structures and discourses that reinforce explicitly or implicitly the centrality of men and the identity of the top of a hierarchical power and economic structure as male.

The study of masculinities has been inspired by feminist theory to explore the construction of manhood and masculinity, and to question the real circumstances of men. It has explored how privilege is constructed, and what price is paid for …

Unbending Gender: Why Family And Work Conflict And What To Do About It (Panel Two: Who's Minding The Baby?), Nancy Dowd, Adrienne Davis, Marion Crain, Bonnie Dill, Catherine Ross, Joan Williams

Nancy Dowd

A central characteristic of our current gender arrangements is that they pit ideal worker women against marginalized caregiver women in a series of patterned conflicts I call gender wars. One version of these are the mommy wars that we see often covered in the press between employed mothers and mothers at home. Employed mothers at times participate in the belittlement commonly felt by homemakers. Also mothers at home, I think, at times participate in the guilt-tripping that's often felt by mothers who are employed. These gender wars are a central but little understood characteristic of the gender system that grew …