Law and Gender Commons^™

Marriage Equality Comes To The Fourth Circuit, Carl Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Marriage equality has come to America. Throughout 2014, several federal appellate courts and numerous district court judges across the United States invalidated state constitutional or statutory proscriptions on same-sex marriage. Therefore, it was not surprising that Eastern District of Virginia Judge Arenda Wright Allen held that Virginia’s bans were unconstitutional in February. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed her opinion that July. North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia District Judges rejected these jurisdictions’ prohibitions during autumn, and the Supreme Court approved marriage equality the next year. Because marriage equality in the Fourth Circuit presents …

Another Victory For Married Lesbian Parents, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Chance For Ex-Partner’S Parenting Claim, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Spousal Support In Quebec: Resisting The Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines, Jodi Lazare

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Since 2005, the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines have become an essential part of the practice of family law throughout Canada. Aimed at structuring discretionary spousal support determinations under the Divorce Act and increasing the fairness of awards, the Advisory Guidelines have been embraced by appellate courts across jurisdictions. Quebec is the exception to that trend. Despite that marriage and divorce fall under federal jurisdiction, Quebec courts resist the application of these non-binding rules, written by two family law scholars. This article responds to Quebec's resistance to the Advisory Guidelines and suggests that concerns about them may be misplaced. By reviewing …

Appeals Court Denies Sperm Donor Paternity Test, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Mothers With Disabilities, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

For the past several decades, feminist theorists have focused on the intersection of sex and other identities: race, primarily, but also religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnicity. More recently, a few scholars have begun exploring the intersection of sex and disability, highlighting the unique obstacles facing women with disabilities. This Article advances the intersectionality literature by exposing and exploring the marginalization experienced by mothers with disabilities. Specifically, this Article will explore how the stereotypes that apply to women, mothers, and individuals with disabilities, intersect to produce a particularly precarious position for mothers with disabilities in the workplace (employment law) …

Equality, Sovereignty, And The Family In Morales-Santana, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

In Sessions v. Morales-Santana, ³ the Supreme Court encountered a body of citizenship law that has long relied on family membership in the construction of the nation’s borders and the composition of the polity.⁴ The particular statute at issue in the case regulates the transmission of citizenship from American parents to their foreign-born children at birth, a form of citizenship known today as derivative citizenship.⁵ When those children are born outside marriage, the derivative citizenship statute makes it more difficult for American fathers, as compared with American mothers, to transmit citizenship to their foreign-born children.⁶ Over …

Oliari And The European Court Of Human Rights: Where The Court Failed, Vito John Marzano

Pace International Law Review

The European Court of Human Rights revisited the issue of legal recognition for same-sex partnerships on July 21, 2015 when it decided Oliari and Others v. Italy. This Note explores the implications of that decision and what it may mean for same-sex couples within Italy and throughout the Council of Europe. Through a careful analysis of the decision, this Note concludes that Oliari provides slight yet important movement on the issue of a Contracting State’s obligation to afford legal recognition for same-sex partnerships, but a practical implementation of the Court’s holding likely will yield little additional movement in more conservative …

Gender And Nation-Building: Family Law As Legal Architecture, Tracy E. Higgins, Rachel P. Fink

Maine Law Review

In considering the legal architecture of nation-building, we might most readily think of public law as our subject insofar as it governs the relationship between the individual and the state, and establishes the institutions of governance and the sources and limits of their power. The essays in this volume, in large part, track this instinct in that they concern themselves with fields such as constitutional law, criminal law, and public international law. Closer to the margin of public and private law are essays dealing with various dimensions of the modern regulatory state, including banking and commercial transactions. In each of …

Quacking Like A Duck? Functional Parenthood Doctrine And Same-Sex Parents, Katharine K. Baker

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This Article unpacks the relationship between the functional parenthood doctrine, constitutionally protected parental autonomy rights and intent-to-parent tests as they are applied in same-sex parenting relationships. It argues that, with the advent of same-sex marriage and second parent adoption, the functional parent doctrine is unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive to anyone interested in expanding legal recognition of non-traditional family forms. The functional parent doctrine asks courts to employ traditional understandings of parenthood (“Who acted like a parent?”) in assigning parental status.

These traditional understandings are usually, if not inevitably, dyadic, heteronormative, genetic, and gendered. In practice, the functional parent doctrine undermines …

The Polarization Of Reproductive And Parental Decision-Making, Jamie R. Abrams

Florida State University Law Review

Women’s abortion and parental decision-making in child rearing are constructed as polarized methods of decision-making in law, politics, and society. Women’s abortion decision-making is understood as myopic and individualistic. Parental decision-making is understood as sacrificial and selfless. This polarization leaves reproductive decision-making isolated, marginalized, and vulnerable while parental decision-making is essentialized, protected, and revered. Both framings are inaccurate and problematic. A unified family decision-making framework that aligns abortion decision-making and parental decision-making reveals that both forms of decision-making are more multi-dimensional, relational, and family-centered than currently understood. This Article exposes the ground to be gained by crossing longstanding boundaries in …

Dissenting From History: The False Narratives Of The Obergefell Dissents, Christopher R. Leslie

Indiana Law Journal

According to a quote attributed to numerous philosophers and political leaders, “History is written by victors.”1 In the legal battle over same-sex marriage, those opposed to marriage equality have attempted to disprove this age-old adage. In response to the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges—which held that state laws banning same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment—each of the four dissenting Justices issued his own dissenting opinion. Every one of these dissents misrepresented the circumstances and precedent leading up to the Obergefell decision. Collectively, the Obergefell dissenters have valiantly tried to rewrite America’s legal, constitutional, and social history, all in an …

The Polarization Of Reproductive And Parental Decision-Making, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Women’s abortion decision-making and parental decision-making in child rearing are constructed as polarized methods of decision-making. Women’s abortion decision-making is understood as myopic and individualistic. Parental decision-making is understood as sacrificial and selfless. This polarization leaves reproductive decision-making isolated, marginalized, and vulnerable while parental decision-making is essentialized, protected, and revered. Both framings are inaccurate and problematic. A unified family decision-making framework that aligns abortion decision-making and parental decision-making reveals that both forms of decision-making are more multi-dimensional, relational, and family-centered than currently understood. This article exposes the ground to be gained by crossing longstanding boundaries in family law and reproductive …

Find Out What It Means To Me: The Politics Of Respect And Dignity In Sexual Orientation Antidiscrimination, Jeremiah A. Ho

Utah Law Review

This Article considers the state of LGBTQ equality after the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Specifically, by examining this upsurge of social visibility for same-sex couples as both acceptance of sexual minorities and cultural assimilation, the Article finds that the marriage cases at the Supreme Court—Obergefell and United States v. Windsor—shifted the framing of gay rights from the politics of respect that appeared more than a decade ago in Lawrence v. Texas toward a politics of respectability. The Article traces this regression in Justice Kennedy’s own definition of dignity from Lawrence, where he approached the concept of dignity …

Workin’ 9:00–5:00 For Nine Months: Assessing Pregnancy Discrimination Laws In Georgia, Kaitlyn Pettet

Georgia State University Law Review

As demonstrated in this Note, there is still a considerable way to go before women are no longer forced to choose between pregnancy and keeping their career. Allegations of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace are also on the rise.

In 1997, 4,000 plaintiffs filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). By 2011, that number rose to 5,800. The EEOC won significant damages in pregnancy discrimination cases, demonstrating a greater tendency towards discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, this rise in claims and awards caught the attention of the nation’s media, placing new emphasis on the treatment of pregnant women …

Obergefell’S Impact On Functional Families, Raymond C. O'Brien

Catholic University Law Review

More than forty percent of children born in America are born to unmarried parents and only half of all cohabitating adults in America are currently married. While many children are born to single parents, others are part of the two-person unmarried cohabiting functional family paradigm. What is the status of these children?

This article examines the changing paradigm of parental status, specifically vis-à-vis homosexual couples with children, and the rights of the non-biological parent after separation. This article examines the changes in law in regards to unmarried parents leading up to the Uniform Parentage Act. It describes the equitable remedies …

Paternity Un(Certainty): How The Law Surrounding Paternity Challenges Negatively Impacts Family Relationships And Women's Sexuality, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

It is popularly believed that false paternity rates are 10-30%, and that thousands of unsuspecting men are supporting children who are not theirs. These reported rates of false paternity have become urban legend, demonizing women as over-sexualized partners who shouldn’t be trusted. This in turn has influenced laws regarding paternity, which have evolved to allow men to dis-establish paternity years after a child’s birth, even when there has been an adjudication or acknowledgment of paternity. This article argues that society should be cautious about elevating science as the highest consideration in truth claims about paternity. It examines the incoherent and …

Prenatal Abandonment: 'Horton Hatches The Egg' In The Supreme Court And Thirty-Four States, Mary M. Beck

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article addresses an issue critical to forty-one percent of fathers in the United States: prenatal abandonment. Under prenatal abandonment theory, fathers can lose their parental rights to non-marital children if they do not provide prenatal support to the mothers of their children. This is true even if the mothers have not notified the fathers of the pregnancy and if the mothers or fathers are unsure of the fathers’ paternity. While this result may seem counterintuitive, it is necessitated by demographic trends. Prenatal abandonment theory has been structured to protect mothers, fathers, and fetuses in response to a number of …

Mothers In The Margins: Addressing The Consequences Of Criminal Records For Young Mothers Of Color, Jesse Krohn, Jaime Gullen

University of Baltimore Law Review

As young women pull ahead of young men in higher education, the wage gap narrows, and young men continue to be arrested and incarcerated at higher rates than young women, there has been much discussion at the policy level and in the media regarding the need to concentrate resources on men and boys. President Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper" and “Responsible Fatherhood” initiatives typify this shift.

As legal aid lawyers who represent youth, many of whom have been involved in the juvenile and criminal legal systems, we are pulled into the debate and asked to answer with increasing frequency: “What …

Mother. Orator. Woman Suffrage Leader: The Feminist Legacy Of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Seeing The Wrecking Ball In Motion: Ex Parte Protection Orders And The Realities Of Domestic Violence, 32 Wis. J.L. Gender & Soc'y 13 (2017), Debra Pogrund Stark, Jessica M. Choplin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

One of the most fundamental norms in our judicial system is that courts need to hear from both parties on a legal issue before granting any form of legal relief. Nevertheless, rules of civil procedure permit a vulnerable party to appear in court ex parte (without prior notice to the other party), to obtain a temporary order prohibiting a wrongful action about to be taken that will cause irreparable harm. A classic example of this is when a person runs into court because a demolition crew is starting to set up to demolish a building they have built and claim …

In The Shadow Of A Myth: Bargaining For Same-Sex Divorce, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores a relatively new phenomenon in family law: same-sex divorce. The Article's central claim is that parties to the first wave of same-sex divorces are not effectively bargaining against the backdrop of legal dissolution rules that would govern in the absence of an agreement. In other words, to use Robert Mnookin and Lewis Kornhauser's terminology, they are not "bargaining in the shadow of the law." Instead, the Article argues, many same-sex couples today bargain in the shadow of a myth that same-sex couples are egalitarian—that there are no vulnerable parties or power differentials in same-sex divorce.

The Article …

Close Encounters: A Feminist Legal Theory Analysis Of The State Treatment Of Female Child Sexual Abuse Victims, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article explores the way in which the law currently deals with sexual violence against female children in the home – evaluating the ways in which the state has access to the private realm of the family and the ways in which civil and criminal legal systems deal with this type of trauma to girls across a spectrum of time. Research shows that the child protection system only captures a small percentage of sexual abuse right after it happens. However, research also shows that female child sex abuse survivors appear in statistically significant numbers among other groups – drug and …

Fathers And Feminism: The Case Against Genetic Entitlement, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

This Article makes the case against a nascent consensus among feminist and other progressive scholars about men's parental rights. Most progressive proposals to reform parentage law focus on making it easier for men to assert parental rights, especially when they are not married to the mother of the child. These proposals may seek, for example, to require the state to make more extensive efforts to locate biological fathers, to require pregnant women to notify men of their impending paternity, or to require new mothers to give biological fathers access to infants.

These proposals disregard the mother's existing parental rights and …

Who Is Parent And Who Is Child In Same-Sex Family? - Legislative And Judicial Issues For Lgbt Families Post-Separation, Part Ii: The U.S. Perspective, Mary Kay Kisthardt, Richard A. Roane

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Tradition And Culture In Africa: Practices That Facilitate Trafficking Of Women And Children, Norah Hashim Msuya

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Many states in Africa have adopted legislative, administrative and institutional measures to combat trafficking in human beings. These measures include, among other things, the formulation and implementation of both national and regional action plans by African states to provide for comprehensive and coordinated interventions. Many African countries have also enacted an anti-trafficking legislation at the country level. Despite these measures, African women and children have been trafficked annually worldwide for purposes of forced labor, sexual exploitation, and domestic servitude. Additionally, women and children are trafficked within their countries from rural to urban areas. Misconception and abuse of African tradition and …

Domestic Violence Law, Abusers’ Intent, And Social Media: How Transaction-Bound Statutes Are The True Threats To Prosecuting Perpetrators Of Gender-Based Violence, Megan L. Bumb

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapid expansion of social media has brought with it a new platform for perpetrators of domestic violence to assert power and control over their victims. The statutes presently used to prosecute abusers fail to protect victims from social media threats and to punish abusers for making those threats. Using the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Elonis v. United States, this note proposes a straightforward solution to a multifaceted problem—how to better protect victims of domestic violence from social media threats while maintaining abusers’ First Amendment rights. The answer is not mere clarification of the true threat doctrine; it is …

The Rules Of Maternity, Dara Purvis

Faculty Scholarship

A diverse body of laws and regulations speaking to reproductive rights, healthcare, criminal punishment of drug use, termination of parental rights, and more creates the rules of maternity. These rules are guidance provided both obliquely and explicitly by the law's coercive power telling women both how to and who should mother. Rule one begins in pregnancy, with the message that "your body is your child's vessel." During pregnancy, women are counselled that doctor knows best. After the child's birth, the mother remains responsible for the people who enter a child's life, leading to rule 3: "mothers must always protect." …

Racial And Gender Justice In The Child Welfare And Child Support Systems, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

While divorcing couples in the United States have been studied for many years, separating unmarried couples and their children have proven more difficult to analyze. Recently there have been successful longitudinal ethnographic and survey-based studies. This piece uses documents from a single Indiana county’s unified family court (called the Probate Court) to trace the effects of race and gender on unmarried families, beginning with a sample of 386 children for whom paternity petitions were brought in four months of 2008. It confirms prior theoretical work on racial differences in noncustodial parenting and poses new questions about how incarceration and gender …

How Texas Governor Hopes To Undo Marriage Equality, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.