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Full-Text Articles in Law

Breastfeeding On A Nickel And A Dime: Why The Affordable Care Act's Nursing Mothers Amendment Won't Help Low-Wage Workers, Nancy Ehrenreich, Jamie Siebrese Oct 2014

Breastfeeding On A Nickel And A Dime: Why The Affordable Care Act's Nursing Mothers Amendment Won't Help Low-Wage Workers, Nancy Ehrenreich, Jamie Siebrese

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (also known as “Obamacare”), Congress passed a new law requiring employers to provide accommodation to working mothers who want to express breast milk while at work. This accommodation requirement is a step forward from the preceding legal regime, under which federal courts consistently found that “lactation discrimination” did not constitute sex discrimination. But this Article predicts that the new law will nevertheless fall short of guaranteeing all women the ability to work while breastfeeding. The generality of the Act’s brief provisions, along with the broad discretion it assigns …


Not All Women Are Mothers: Addressing The Invisibility Of Women Under The Control Of The Criminal Justice System Who Do Not Have Children, Venezia Michalsen, Jeanne Flavin Jun 2014

Not All Women Are Mothers: Addressing The Invisibility Of Women Under The Control Of The Criminal Justice System Who Do Not Have Children, Venezia Michalsen, Jeanne Flavin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Research has consistently shown that most women under the control of the criminal justice system are mothers. The robustness of this finding has been accompanied by a failure to consider the characteristics and needs of women without children. In this study, we examine data on 1,334 formerly incarcerated women. Findings indicate that while mothers and non-mothers share some characteristics, they differ on several others, most notably demographic profile, mental health, and timing of contacts with the criminal justice system. These results suggest a need to recognize the diversity among women offender groups, particularly when developing policies and programs need.


The Payoffs And Pitfalls Of Laws That Encourage Shared Parenting: Lessons From The Australian Experience, Patrick Parkinson Apr 2014

The Payoffs And Pitfalls Of Laws That Encourage Shared Parenting: Lessons From The Australian Experience, Patrick Parkinson

Dalhousie Law Journal

A fierce argument is raging in various jurisdictions around the world about whether legislation should encourage shared parenting when mothers and fathers live apart. Much attention has been paid to changes to the law in Australia in 2006; however, there are many myths about the impact of those legislative changes. This article explains the changes and places them in the context of developments across the western world in the law of parenting after separation. It then reviews the research evidence on the effects of the 2006 reforms, particularly in terms of the encouragement of shared care. The article concludes by …


Are Mothers Hazardous To Their Children’S Health?: Law, Culture, And The Framing Of Risk, Linda C. Fentiman Jan 2014

Are Mothers Hazardous To Their Children’S Health?: Law, Culture, And The Framing Of Risk, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the psychosocial processes of risk construction and explores how these processes intersect with core principles of Anglo-American law. It does so by critiquing current cultural and legal perceptions that mothers, especially pregnant women, pose a risk to their children’s health. The Article’s core argument is that during the last four decades, both American society and American law have increasingly come to view mothers as a primary source of risk to children. This intense focus on the threat of maternal harm ignores significant environmental sources of injury, including fathers and other men, as well as exposure to toxic …


Pam Johnston Dahl Helm: Lost To Our Mothers, Diana Wood Conroy Jan 2014

Pam Johnston Dahl Helm: Lost To Our Mothers, Diana Wood Conroy

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In the time I knew Pam Johnstoni during her doctoral study at the University of Wollongong (1995-1998) the search for mothers, the need for certain and indissoluble affections underpinned her art and writing. The father was lost and absent: there was a constant matrilineal momentum in her positioning of herself. “To explore mother daughter relationships, to examine oral histories as a way back to Aboriginal connections to land”, she wrote, was pivotal to her work (Johnston 1997, p.5). As a tribute to her, and because of my admiration for her courage and passion for justice I would like to tease …