Law Commons^™

Friends With Benefits, Laura A. Rosenbury

UF Law Faculty Publications

Family law has long been intensely interested in certain adult intimate relationships, namely marriage and marriage-like relationships, and silent about other adult intimate relationships, namely friendship. This Article examines the effects of that focus, illustrating how it frustrates one of the goals embraced by most family law scholars over the past forty years: the achievement of gender equality, within the family and without.

Part I examines the current scope of family law doctrine and scholarship, highlighting the ways that the home is still the organizing structure for family. Despite calls for increased legal recognition of diverse families, few scholars have …

When Obscenity Discriminates, Elizabeth M. Glazer

Elizabeth M Glazer

When public indecency statutes outlaw gender nonconformity, obscenity discriminates; when movie ratings censor representations of sexual minorities, obscenity discriminates, and discriminates on the basis of their status as sexual minorities. This Article addresses obscenity doctrine’s infliction of first generation, or status discrimination against sexual minorities by conflating “sex” – and the prurient representation of sex that constitutes obscenity – and “sexual orientation.” Civil rights lawyers and scholars have turned their attentions away from “first generation” discrimination,” where groups experience discrimination on the basis of their status, and toward “second generation” discrimination, where groups experience discrimination for failing to downplay or …

The Cultural Property Claim Within The Same Sex Marriage Controversy, Marc R. Poirier

Marc R. Poirier

The Cultural Property Claim within the Same Sex Marriage Controversy.

Marc R. Poirier, Seton Hall University School of Law

This article argues that traditionalist opposition to same sex marriage can be understood as a cultural property claim -- the sort of claim that is often made by Native American tribes and other subordinated cultural groups of a right to control the uses of sacred or culturally central rituals, places and objects. Ultimately, it disagrees with the traditionalist position, and argues that traditionalists should not be allowed to maintain a property-like right to exclude same sex couples from marriage. Nevertheless, the …

Privatizing Bans On Abortion: Eviscerating Constitutional Rights Through Tort Remedies, Maya Manian

Maya Manian

State governments have devised a new means to evade the Constitution. Their new means is to enact tort statutes that, in effect, ban constitutionally protected conduct. In particular, some states have made the provision of an abortion a tort for which there can be no defense and no cap on the amount of liability. These states have made performing an abortion essentially illegal. Yet, because tort statutes are enforced through private litigation, rather than public prosecution, a number of courts have held that they lack jurisdiction to review these laws. Federal courts have concluded that standing doctrine and state sovereign …

Streedhana And Mehr, Krishna Kumari Areti

Krishna Kumari Areti prof

Streedhana is the exclusive property of woman under Hindu Law. Mehr, which is also known as Dower, is also the exclusive property of woman under Islamic Law. But, both are very different and at the same time not different as both reflect the position of women in Indian society. Both are in monetary form and given at the time of or during the time of marriage or in connection with the marriage.

Sex, Trust, And Corporate Boards, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

This article collects and interprets social science research on sex and trust and uses this work to shed new light on the emerging case for gender diversity on corporate boards. Specifically, the article describes social science research findings indicating (1) that men and women trust and are trustworthy on different bases and (2) that there is a bias against women in chief executive officer (and potentially other corporate leadership) positions. Based on this research, the nature of corporate management and control, and current legal scholarship on corporate governance, the article asserts that gender diversity on corporate boards may be desirable …

Gender Equality In High School Sports: Why There Is A Contact Sport Exemption To Title Ix, Eliminating It, And A Proposal For The Future., Blake J. Furman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Gender And Early American Historic Preservation: A Case Study Of Ann Pamela Cunningham And Her Mount Vernon Preservation Effort, Jill Teehan

Georgetown Law Historic Preservation Papers Series

American historic preservationists universally credit Ann Pamela Cunningham, the woman who saved George Washington's Mount Vernon home, as the chief architect of the historic preservation movement in the United States. However, little scholarship has considered how Cunningham's social position as a woman significantly contributed to her ability to save Mount Vernon, and thus jumpstart a national movement to save historically significant places. Using Cunningham and the organization she formed, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union (MVLA), widely regarded as the nation's first historic preservation society, this paper considers the intersection of gender and early historic preservation in the …

A Right To Choose?: Sex Selection In The International Context, Ashley Bumgarner

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

While there is some debate among doctors, ethicists, and the general public about the level of medical necessity that should justify a sex-selection procedure, most accept that sex selection for medical reasons is beyond ethical reproach, and in some situations, should even be encouraged.9 However, elective, non-medical sex-selection, which is often performed for social or financial reasons, is the subject greater scrutiny and impassioned ethical debate.10 Currently, doctors and geneticists are able to diagnose more than five hundred separate medical conditions in a developing fetus.11 Among these conditions are devastating genetic diseases such as hemophilia, Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, Huntington's …

An Uninvited Guest: The Federal Death Penalty And The Massachusetts Prosecution Of Nurse Kristen Gilbert, John P. Cunningham

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deceptive Appearances: Judges, Cognitive Bias, And Dress Codes, Marybeth Herald

Marybeth Herald

Although it is no longer legal to deny women the right to work simply because they are women, an employer can still require women conform to gender-based appearance norms in order to keep their jobs. In some industries, lipstick, foundation, mascara, and blush remain essential components of a woman's professional uniform. In these industries, men are spared the obligation of cosmetic upkeep, because only women must don face-paint to appear comfortably recognizable to customers.

Why this differential dress-code is not considered discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII is the mystery. The textual force of anti-discrimination law would …

Gender, Abortion, And Travel After Roe’S End, Susan Frelich Appleton

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Casa Of Maryland And The Battle Regarding Human Trafficking And Domestic Worker Rights, Elizabeth Keyes

All Faculty Scholarship

At the November 2006 symposium presented by the University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class, the panelists discussed various issues regarding human trafficking. One entity at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking is CASA of Maryland. This article contains remarks originally made by the author that focused the topic of human trafficking on one particular group of workers: domestic workers. That particular group provides an interesting study because of the many race and gender issues that are wrapped up in the treatment of domestic workers under the law.

My Fair Ladies : Sex, Gender, And Fair Use In Copyright, Rebecca Tushnet

Rebecca Tushnet

No abstract provided.

Gender Matters: Making The Case For Trans Inclusion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

Gender Matters: Making the Case for Trans Inclusion Nancy J. Knauer, Peter J. Liacouras Professor of Law Beasley School of Law, Temple University ABSTRACT The transgender communities are producing an important and nuanced critique of our gender system. For community members, the project is self-constitutive and, therefore, has an immediacy that also marks the efforts of other marginalized groups who have attempted to make sense of the world through description, interrogation, and, ultimately, a program for transformation. The transgender project also has universalizing elements because, existing within the gender system, each one of us embodies a particular gender articulation. It …

Gender Equity In College Athletics: Women Coaches As A Case Study, Deborah L. Rhode, Christopher J. Walker

ExpressO

As Title IX celebrates its 35th anniversary, many have noted the positive impact it has had on women sports. But there is also an unintended (and oft-neglected) byproduct: as opportunities for female students have increased, opportunities for female professionals have declined. This Article focuses on the barriers that still confront women in college athletics, particularly those who seek professional positions in coaching and administration. Part I presents a brief overview of Title IX, which makes clear its limitations in securing gender equity. Part II.A discusses the declining representation and lower success rate of women coaches, while Part II.B explores the …

Bias, The Brain, And Student Evaluations Of Teaching, Deborah J Merritt

ExpressO

Student evaluations of teaching are a common fixture at American law schools, but they harbor surprising biases. Extensive psychology research demonstrates that these assessments respond overwhelmingly to a professor’s appearance and nonverbal behavior; ratings based on just thirty seconds of silent videotape correlate strongly with end-of-semester evaluations. The nonverbal behaviors that influence teaching evaluations are rooted in physiology, culture, and habit, allowing characteristics like race and gender to affect evaluations. The current process of gathering evaluations, moreover, allows social stereotypes to filter students’ perceptions, increasing risks of bias. These distortions are inevitable products of the intuitive, “system one” cognitive processes …

Some Modest Proposals For Challenging Established Dress Code Jurisprudence, Jennifer L. Levi

Faculty Scholarship

Historically, most courts have sustained employer-imposed, gender-based dress codes. Two well-established exceptions to the rule exist for dress codes that either (1) objectify or sexualize women or (2) allow for flexibility of standards for male employees' appearance but require stricter rules for women. A third, still-evolving exception has recently developed regarding challenges to dress codes by transgender litigants. Despite this recent progress, however, the classical gender-based dress code -- requiring women to conform to feminine stereotypes and men to conform to masculine stereotypes -- has, up to the present, been sustained by a majority of the courts time and again. …

The Feminist Pervasion: How Gender-Based Scholarship Informs Law And Law Teaching, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

This is an edited, annotated transcript of a conference panel discussion on feminism, sex, and gender in law, legal education, and legal scholarship. The transcript reflects widely divergent views of the place of feminism, sex, and gender in the law and legal scholarship. Moreover, the panelists differ as to the role feminism has played in the lives of women as law students and practicing attorneys. In the latter part of the transcript, the panelists' remarks focus in on hotly debated issues surrounding possible gender (or sex) and racial bias in LSAT testing and the innate abilities of women and men …

Gender Matters: Making The Case For Trans Inclusion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The transgender communities are producing an important and nuanced critique of our gender system. For community members, the project is self-constitutive and, therefore, has an immediacy that also marks the efforts of other marginalized groups who have attempted to make sense of the world through description, interrogation, and, ultimately, a program for transformation. The transgender project also has universalizing elements because, existing within the gender system, each one of us embodies a particular gender articulation. It is through this articulation that we define ourselves in relation to the gender we were assigned at birth, the gender we choose, the gender …

The Personal Is Political--And Economic: Rethinking Domestic Violence, Deborah M. Weissman

Deborah M. Weissman

This Article seeks to expand the scope of the domestic violence discourse within the context of the theory and practice of legal strategies. The intent is to shift the analytical parameters beyond the criminal justice system to include the political economy of everyday experiences of households. Such a paradigm shift examines the conditions of the private sphere as a function of the circumstances of public realms. It considers domestic violence by linking it to the structural transformations of the U.S. economy during recent years. It assesses domestic violence from the perspective of the daily life of men and women who …

Toward A Feminist Theory Of The Rural, Lisa R. Pruitt

Lisa R Pruitt

Feminists have often criticized law’s ignorance of women’s practical, lived experiences, even as they have also sought to reveal the variety among those experiences. This article builds on both critiques to argue for greater attentiveness to a neglected aspect of women’s situation: place. Specifically, Professor Pruitt asserts that the hardships and vulnerability that mark the lives of rural women and constrain their moral agency are overlooked or discounted by a contemporary cultural presumption of urbanism.

Professor Pruitt considers judicial responses to the realities of rural women’s lives in relation to three different legal issues: domestic violence, termination of parental rights, …

Gender And Justice: Parity And The United States Supreme Court, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

There is a deep concern among many American women that only one woman remains on the United States Supreme Court. When Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in on September 25, 1981, most people never imagined that twenty-five years later there would still be only one woman on the Court. It appears that it will be many more years before there is a critical mass of women sitting on the high court. Given its central role, the Court should better represent the gender balance in American society. In a number of other countries, voluntary or involuntary parity provisions have been …

Accepting The Court's Invitation, Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Casa Of Maryland And The Battle Regarding Human Trafficking And Domestic Workers' Rights, Elizabeth Keyes

Women, Leadership & Equality

No abstract provided.

Transcript: Opening Remarks, Peter Jaszi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Gender, And Governance: Introduction, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Since at least the mid 1990s and the Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing, gender as an analytic category and as a programmatic concern has become a mainstream part of international law. While feminists have traditionally understood their relation to international law in critical terms and from their position as outsiders, this turn toward gender equality places at least some feminists and some of their projects within the governance structure of international law itself. This crucial shift from exclusion to partial inclusion merits examination.

Transphobia And The Relational Production Of Gender, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Knowing one's place in the social order, whether that place is one of relative privilege or not, serves two psychologically ameliorative functions. It relieves one from the “anxiety of [gender] identity interrogation” and it helps to inform one as to the socially agreed upon, acceptable conduct for interpersonal exchanges--the episteme of social interaction. This Paper will demonstrate that gender identity is produced through relational, contextually influenced, interpretative processes. Because gender is constructed in societies which strongly embrace static, binary conceptions of gender, and in which social, familial, occupational, and sexual *139 interactions are heavily influenced by gendered social scripts, gender …

Transphobia And The Relational Production Of Gender, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Knowing one's place in the social order, whether that place is one of relative privilege or not, serves two psychologically ameliorative functions. It relieves one from the “anxiety of [gender] identity interrogation” and it helps to inform one as to the socially agreed upon, acceptable conduct for interpersonal exchanges--the episteme of social interaction. This Paper will demonstrate that gender identity is produced through relational, contextually influenced, interpretative processes. Because gender is constructed in societies which strongly embrace static, binary conceptions of gender, and in which social, familial, occupational, and sexual *139 interactions are heavily influenced by gendered social scripts, gender …

The Lost Legislative History Of The Equal Rights Amendment: Lessons From The Unpublished 1983 Markup By The House Judiciary Committee, Paul Taylor, Philip G. Kiko

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.