Law and Gender Commons^™

Being Gay In Lubbock: The Equal Access Act In Caudillo, Sarah Orman

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The Equal Access Act which prohibits high schools from discriminating among extracurricular clubs on the basis of viewpoint, was originally intended to protect the rights of high school students to hold prayer groups and other religious-oriented meetings on campus. In an unintended (but not unexpected) twist, the Act has expanded from protecting religious expression to ensuring equal access for groups of gay and lesbian students. This Note examines the history and purpose of the Equal Access Act, focusing on a recent case in which a federal district court upheld the decision of Lubbock High School to deny access to members …

Honor Thy Mother: The Supreme Court's Jurisprudence Of Motherhood, Laura Oren

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The United States Supreme Court's views about motherhood must be teased out from holdings it fails to connect into a coherent whole. The Justices have considered issues relating to women's physical and social reproductive roles in four major areas: comparative family relationships (unwed mothers versus unwed fathers), dependent mothers, mothers in the workplace, and the right to choose or refuse to become a mother. Despite some positive developments and much lip service, the Court's jurisprudence of motherhood fails to follow one of the fundamental precepts of our culture - "Honor Thy Mother."

Getting Away With Murder: Guatemala's Failure To Protect Women And Rodi Alvarado's Quest For Saftey, Angelica Chazaro, Jennifer Casey

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

A decade after the 1996 Peace Accords that marked the end of the 36-year internal armed conflict, Guatemala fails to provide basic protection of women's human rights. The plight of asylumseeker Rodi Alvarado and the spiked increase in the murders of Guatemalan women ("femicides") highlight the scope of Guatemala's lack of protection for women. After suffering ten years of brutal domestic violence, with the authorities ignoring her pleas for protection, Rodi fled Guatemala, seeking asylum in the United States. She is not alone in her suffering. Since 2001, over 1,500 women have been murdered in Guatemala, with the perpetrators enjoying …

Using Postmodern Feminist Legal Theory To Interrupt The Reinscription Of Sex Stereotypes Through The Institution Of Marriage, Jessica Knouse

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The institution of marriage has long been an engine of the subordination of women, the normalization of relationships and the repression of individual desires. This Article suggests that the time has come to dismantle the institution and end its deleterious impact upon society. The Article begins by defining "sex" and "sex stereotypes" and by examining, from various feminist perspectives, the influence of sex stereotypes upon individual identity creation. The Article proceeds to review the historical development of marriage, illustrating that marriage inevitably reinscribes sex stereotypes, and arguing that the institution and the stereotypes are presently so intertwined that disaggregation is …

Asking Adolescents: Does A Mature Minor Have A Right To Participate In Health Care Decisions, Cara D. Watts

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Many children approaching the age of majority struggle with severe and sometimes terminal illnesses. Does such a minor possess a Fourteenth Amendment Due Process right to participate in medical decisions concerning her care, or is her fate left solely in the hands of her parents and the State? This Note examines the health care rights of minors and attempts to give a voice to children, a vast, silent population in this country, in the medical care context. After examining such fundamental cases as Belotti v. Baird, this Note finds numerous exceptions, crafted by the courts over several decades in a …

A Woman Of Property: From Being It To Controlling It - A Bicentennial Perspective On Women And Ohio Property Law, 1803 To 2003, Sarah Miller Little

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This Article reviews the development of women's legal rights, by tracing the right of a married woman to own and control real property from after the American Revolution to the present. Early feminist leaders were much of the impetus for change in women's real property laws. The Article examines the early feminist movement in Ohio, and the profound effects of the many, courageous feminist leaders on Ohio property law.

Toward A More Equitable Approach To Causation In Veterinary Malpractice Actions, Jayne De Young

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The legal and economic barriers to veterinary malpractice cases are significant. Potential plaintiffs are often discouraged from pursuing their claims because of the very limited potential for significant damages and the difficulty of proving causation. This Note advocates a burden-shifting approach to the causation element of veterinary malpractice. It commences with an overview of some of the different methods by which animal guardians have sought redress for the injury or death of an animal while under the care of a veterinarian. This overview is followed by a detailed look at the elements of veterinary malpractice. Next, the recordkeeping standards in …

What Does It Take To Be A (Lesbian) Parent - On Intent And Genetics, Sanja Zgonjanin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This Note analyzes KM v. E.G., 13 Cal. Rptr 3d 136 (Cal. Ct. App. 2004), the first case brought in front of any court of appeals in the U.S. where the lesbian egg donor (the genetic mother) who raised her children for six years together with her partner (the gestational mother) was denied parental rights after the couple separated. The application of the intent based determination of parentage originally devised to solve competing parental claims in surrogacy case is criticized as inappropriate, unnecessary and unjustified. The absence of legal protections for lesbian parents and standards addressing issues unique to lesbian …

Aligning Or Maligning - Getting Inside A New Idea, Getting Behind No Child Left Behind And Getting Outside Of It All, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The pending reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) alters the landscape of special education for parents and advocates of children with special needs. The proposed modifications are based on an effort to reduce the bureaucracy associated with the current procedural safeguards and to incorporate the concept of accountability embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act. Many advocates are waiting with apprehension for the final version of the bill due to the philosophical changes that it will bring to special education federal law. This article gives an overview of the pending legislation and urges advocates to adapt …

Introduction And Congratulations, Mary Kay Kane

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

The Criminalization Of Survival Attempts: Locking Up Female Runaways And Other Status Offenders, Alecia Humphrey

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

To control and help runaway children, courts have classified them as "status offenders" without getting to the real source of their runaway behavior, such as physical or sexual abuse at home. Instead, confining runaway children to the judicial system through the use of status offenses has further entrenched these runaways' behavior without helping them develop more effective copings skills; children often run away again, commit substantive crimes, once again become victims, or else are institutionalized or incarcerated on down the road. Indeed, girls are especially prone to this cycle, since their numbers are disproportionately higher than those of boys in …

A New Image In The Looking Glass: Faculty Mentoring, Invitational Rhetoric, And The Second-Class Status Of Women In The U.S. Academia, Carlo A. Pedrioli

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Despite earning more than 40% of doctorates awarded in the United States, women hold one third of the tenure-track teaching positions in higher education. Moreover, the women who enter U.S. academia still earn less than their male counterparts. This article maintains that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 offers an inadequate solution for encouraging the presence and equal standing of women in U.S. academia. This article presents the slow progress of equality in academia achieved by Title VII and the limitations of traditional rhetoric. It then offers models of faculty mentoring and introduces the concept of invitational …

Human Trafficking Private Right Of Action: Civil Rights For Trafficked Persons In The United States, Kathleen Kim, Kusia Hreshchyshyn

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Human Trafficking Private Right of Action: Civil Rights for Trafficked Persons in the United States addresses a 2003 addition to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act allowing for a private right of action for persons trafficked to the United States. The article discusses civil litigation as a strategy for trafficked persons to obtain a remedy that specifically addresses the injury that they sustained: enslavement. The discussion situates this remedy within the broader purposes of anti-trafficking legislation.

Introduction And Congratulations, Mary Kay Kane

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mothers' Dreams: Abortion And The High Price Of Motherhood, Joan C. Williams, Shauna L. Shames

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"[N]Ot A Story To Pass On": Constructing Mothers Who Kill, Susan Ayres

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Society is horrified and shocked when mothers kill their children. While this reaction may be justified, the reasons behind infanticide are never fully explored. Motherhood has very specific definitions in our society which makes it difficult to understand the motivations behind infanticide. Social institutions, such as the legal system and the media, are responsible for constructing motherhood in such a way that we view mothers who kill their children as simply insane and deficient. This article asserts another possible viewpoint regarding infanticide. Instead of specularizing women, the author urges people to view mothers who kill their children within the context …

The Voice Of The Unheard: An Evaluation Of And Proposed Solution To The Special Educational Needs Of Hearing Children Of Deaf Parents, Julie Ruschin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Spoken language acquisition depends on aural exposure to the language. A child must hear a language spoken. But more than this, the child must have the language directed at her in conversational context. Because spoken language acquisition requires something that may be beyond the capabilities of the State, and because language acquisition is an educational issue, the responsibility for providing a program to ensure that hearing children of deaf parents master spoken English rests on the State. The State should create programs to ensure that these children are properly exposed to spoken English during the brief period in life in …

Founder's Remarks Commemorating The 15th Anniversary, Deborah Kochan

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Stoning Single Nigerian Mothers For Adultery: Applying Feminist Theory To An Analysis Of Gender Discrimination In International Law, Sarah Crutcher

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

In 2003, an Islamic Sharia court in northern Nigeria sentenced Amina Lawal to death by stoning for having sex outside of marriage. After the man Lawal named as the father of her baby was acquitted for lack of evidence, the international community pressured Nigeria to oppose the ruling by adhering to its own constitutional provisions, and international law prohibiting torture and gender discrimination. This article explores the fundamental conflicts between international human rights law and Islamic law as implemented by Sharia courts. The author cites the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, jus cogens and customary international law, …

The Admissibility Of Tape Recordings In Criminal Trials Involving Domestic Disputes: California's Proposition 8 And Title Iii Of The Federal Omnibus Crime Control And Safe Streets Act, Lee Ashely Smith

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Domestic cases of eavesdropping and wiretapping pose a special problem for laws that were initially meant to govern police misconduct and espionage. California voters passed Proposition 8 but its passage led to many additional questions including whether the law truly champions victims' rights and whether it protects innocent defendants. Federal law, by comparison, sets a minimum standard of one-party consent for the admissibility of wiretap or eavesdropping evidence in criminal trials. This standard has been shown to permit parental wiretaps without allowing purely clandestine recording of another's activities, including spouses and domestic partners. In short, privacy rights are protected to …

Consent Engendered: A Feminist Critique Of Consensual Fourth Amendment Searches, Dana Raigrodski

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This essay examines the inherent power imbalances that characterize police-individual encounters and questions the notion of consensual searches. Albeit feminist challenges to the notion of consent in other areas of the law, there has not been a feminist scrutiny of consent and agency as employed within search and seizure law. Therefore, this essay builds on feminist critique of rape laws and domestic violence to challenge the Court's dichotomized view of coercion and consent in its search and seizure cases and to offer a feminist concept of agency under conditions of subordination.

Lighting The Lantern: Visions Of A Virtual All-Women's Law School, Nancy E. Shurtz

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

"Lighting the Lantern: Visions of a Virtual All-Women's Law School" is a fictional narrative of a hypothetical all women's law school. It is written in non-traditional form in the hope that it will prompt the reader to view the law, academic institutions and societal constructs in ways more consistent with an evolving society that should embrace all differences, whether those differences are gender or racially based.

The mission of the All Women's Law School is threefold: "First, to teach specific lawyering skills and disseminate knowledge in a context designed to help students function effectively in the existing culture while working …

The Child Status Protection Act: Does Immigration Math Solve The Family Unity Equation, Shane Dizon

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This note focuses on the Child Status Protection Act, passed by Congress in 2002 to allow individuals who turn 21 while their permanent residence paperwork is pending to preserve their eligibility as children. The note addresses the various reactions of the enforcing government authorities, practitioners, and courts since the Act's passage. In addition, the author explores the Act's place among other recent legislation and government agency policies purporting to advance the theme of family unity in immigration. Ultimately, the author suggests that the statutory stop-the-clock approach embodied by the Act seems not only inconsistent with its predecessors, which have expanded …

A Hometown Dilemma: Addressing Th E Sexual Harassment Of Undocumented Women In Meatpacking Plants In Iowa And Nebraska, Amanda Clark

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Sexual harassment of undocumented women workers continues to be a systemic problem within the meatpacking industry. In Iowa and Nebraska, the state legislature, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, labor unions, and local advocacy organizations are working to address the problem of sexual harassment within the meatpacking industry. This note addresses the ongoing issues facing women in the meatpacking industry in Iowa and Nebraska, in particular the unique concerns facing undocumented and immigrant women workers. It also looks to the Supreme Court holding in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB to determine the applicability of that case to Title VII sexual …

Child Laborers: The World's Potential Future Labor Resources Exploited And Depleted, Rupneet Sidhu

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

At this very moment, child laborers are working in unsuitable and hazardous conditions in both developed and developing nations. The adults, who are the main medium for giving voice to the concerns of the child laborers at the international and national levels, have failed. However, there are some promising international instruments whose full and sincere implementation can aid nations to eliminate at least the worst forms of child labor. Concurrently improving and enforcing national laws will help as well. Moreover, the non-governmental organizations should be recognized for being instrumental in keeping the child labor issues as a priority of the …

Revisiting Social Group And Nexus In Gender Asylum Claims: A Unifying Rationale For Evolving Jurisprudence, Karen Musalo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Maternal Wall: Relief For Family Caregivers Who Are Discriminated Against On The Job, Joan C. Williams, Nancy Segal

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bringing Your Part Time Policy Up To Par, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Glass Ceiling: The Maternal Wall As A Barrier To Gender Equality, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Our Economy Of Mothers And Others: Women And Economics Revisited, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.