Law Commons^™

The Dialectic Of Rights And Politics: Perspectives From The Women's Movement, Elizabeth M. Schneider

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Transcending Equality Theory: A Way Out Of The Maternity And The Workplace Debate, Lucinda M. Finley

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

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 …

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. …

Three Continuities Of Choice In Abortion, Patrick L. Baude

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Judging And Equality: For Whom Does The Chartertoll?, A Wayne Mackay

Dalhousie Law Journal

While it may be in questionable taste to begin an article on equality with a poem that uses "man" in the global sense, John Donne's words do evoke a sense of community that feminists would applaud.' The tension between an individualistic and communitarian approach to the world is crucial to how equality will be defined in Canada. Violations of equality diminish the rights and dignity of all Canadians and not just the particular individuals or the specific groups who are the immediate victims of inequality. This recognition is only the beginning of the complex task of defining equality as guaranteed …

Equality, Efficiency And Judicial Restraint: Towards Adynamic Constitution, Peter Rogers

Dalhousie Law Journal

Whatever else may be meant by "equality" in specific contexts, its ordinary usage requires a comparison of the political, social, and economic conditions of different members of society. Equality theories are normative theories that explain which differences in condition are justifiable, and which are unacceptable. In short, equality is about the distribution of social benefits and burdens; equality rights are rights to distributive justice.

Equality, Ideology And Oppression: Women And Thecanadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms, N Colleen Sheppard

Dalhousie Law Journal

The major objective of this article is to contribute to an understanding of the potential impact of the equality provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms2 on the lives of women. This requires an awareness of the realities of women's inequality in our society, an understanding of the legal conceptualization of equality, and a consideration of the role of "law" in remedying societal injustice. My focus in this article is on the second concern-that is, on legal theories of equality as they relate to women. I begin with a brief outline of the conflicting ideological approaches that infuse …

Judging And Equality: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?, Edward J. Mcbride

Dalhousie Law Journal

"Equality," like law, politics, and life itself, displays myriad aspects. Reflections on equality, therefore, must take many differentforms, as this volume will subsequently demonstrate. Now that Canada has entrenched equality as a constitutional value, facets of the issue seem to proliferate, almost without end. Questions abound: Will the equality guarantees be confined to public action only? What constitutes public action? Will the enumerated categories protected against discrimination be supplemented by incorporation of unenumerated categories? Will a conventional liberal point of view inform the development of equality under the Charter? What part will a crystallizing feminist perspective play in the process? …

The Idea Of The "Private": A Discussion Of Stateaction Doctrine And Separate Sphere Ideology, Hester Lessard

Dalhousie Law Journal

This essay is a discussion of the formalization in law of a dichotomy between a natural, private order on the one hand, and a public sphere of state action and citizenship on the other. The discussion takes place in the context of equality rights and of the philosophical tensions that underlie the delineation of rights in general. Two legal phenomena are examined: state action doctrine as it has developed in American equal protection jurisprudence under the Fourteenth Amendment and separate sphere ideology as a rationalization for sexual discrimination. Under each doctrine, judicial denial of relief is predicated on a pre-ordained …

Prostitution And Pornography: Beyond Formalequality, Christine Boyle, Sheila Noonan

Dalhousie Law Journal

Both issues that are the subject of this paper raise questions relating to the meaning and application of section 15 of the Canadian Charter ofRights and Freedoms.' They provide case studies of the difficulties in putting an abstract concept, such as equality, into practical legal effect.

Women, Pensions And Equality, Susannah Worth Rowley

Dalhousie Law Journal

A society's values are reflected in its treatment of the elderly. The relationship of the aged to the rest of the population and the social and economic hierarchy within the aged as a group provide tangible and graphic evidence of a society's most fundamental values and attitudes. Who is rewarded and for what? What qualities and contributions are valued, and to what extent?

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 …

Career Patterns Of Male And Female Lawyers, Linda Liefland

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unequal Access: Women Lawyers In A Changing America, Miriam I. Pickus

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Unequal Access: Women Lawyers in a Changing America by Ronald Chester

Correspondence: March 18, 1986, Thank You Letter To Dr. Saffy For Campaign Contributions, Bob Graham

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A letter expressing his gratitude for Dr. Saffy’s contributions to Bob Graham’s United States Senate campaign.

Images Of The Woman Juror, Carol Weisbrod

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

To Have And To Hold: The Marital Rape Exemption And The Fourteenth Amendment, Anne Dailey

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Remedying Underinclusive Statutes, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: A California employer who does not want to comply with California's mandatory unpaid pregnancy leave statute has reached the United States Supreme Court. The employer seeks to have the statute invalidated, claiming it is preempted by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The employer is arguing that the California pregnancy leave act is fatally underinclusive because it does not provide similar employment protection for workers with short-term disabilities. The district court agreed with the employer; the court of appeals did not.

The Creation Of Fetal Rights: Conflicts With Women's Constitutional Rights To Liberty, Privacy, And Equal Protection, Dawn E. Johnsen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Published Consentless Sexual Portrayals: A Proposed Framework For Analysis, Ruth Colker

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Observation About Comparable Worth, George Schatzki

Seattle University Law Review

The ultimate legal question is: Does Title VII incorporate the comparable worth doctrine? The courts are saying, "No." Their reasoning is, at best, unpersuasive. Indeed, often their reasoning is nothing more than mere conclusion. Given what I have described briefly as the legal arguments pro and con, one can easily understand that so long as Griggs remains a part of the Title VII scene, there is a rational but not compelling argument to incorporate comparable worth into the Act. How, then, does a court decide? The following discussion is offered not as an example of desirable or undesirable judicial analysis. …

Income Taxation Of Social Security Benefits: Balancing Social Policy With Tax Policy, Christopher R. Hoyt

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.