Law and Gender Commons^™

Amicus Curiae Brief Of Now Legal Defense And Education Fund And Equal Rights Advocates In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant And In Support Of Reversal, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund ("NOW LDEF") is a leading national non-profit civil rights organization that performs abroad range of legal and educational services in support of efforts to eliminate sex-based discrimination" and secure equal rights. NOW LDEF was founded in 1970 by leaders of the National Organization for Women as a separate organization. NOW LDEF has appeared as amicus in numerous cases involving sex stereotyping as a form of sex discrimination, including Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, and Fisher v. Vassar College.

Equal Rights Advocates ("ERA") is one of the oldest public interest law firms specializing in …

Vision And Reality: Democracy And Citizenship Of Women In The Dayton Peace Accords, Christine M. Chinkin, Kate Paradine

Articles

This Article examines the gendered meanings of the concepts of democracy, citizenship, and human rights in the context of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFA), negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995. The Article is predicated upon the idea that a feminist theory and politics of citizenship and democracy "must embrace an internationalist agenda" and that in turn, for effectiveness and legitimacy, the internationalist agenda must embrace feminist thinking. This Article further argues that the GFA provided an opportunity for the renegotiation of a contested space where democratic concepts of access and participation and citizenship issues …

Feminism At The Millennium, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

Sexism of all kinds – subtle and blatant, criminal and legal, commercial and private – is the topic of the three books under review. The books initially sort themselves out by discipline: Everyday Sexism and Subtle Sexism are anthologies whose editors and contributors are primarily sociologists; Speaking of Sex is written by a law professor and offers a more focused argument about the persistence of gender inequalities. Distinctions in authorship aside, the three books pose a pair of similar and painfully familiar questions: Why is so much still organized to the disadvantage of women, and what can (feminist) academics contribute …

Taking Care, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

Care must be taken when human needs are expressed in the odd dialect of legal rights. This delicate act of translation – from private need to public obligation – demands acute sensitivity to the ways in which public responsibility inaugurates a new and complex encounter with a broad array of public preferences that deprive dependent subjects of primary stewardship over the ways in which their needs are met. Both Martha Fineman and Joan Williams have taken on the difficult project of making the ethical and political case for transforming dependency and care – from private or domestic need to public …

Finding A Third Way: The Use Of Public Engagement And Adr To Bring School Communities Together For The Safety Of Gay Students, David S. Doty

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

On its face, the suggestion that gay and lesbian students, along with all other students, should be protected from violence and harm in public schools does not seem to warrant controversy. Yet, disputes over this issue threaten to consume school communities, as school officials wrestle with complicated legal requirements and emotional stakeholders. Contributing to the turmoil is the fact that school officials cannot begin to address the safety concerns of gay students strictly within a legal framework without finding themselves frustrated by a number of conflicting mandates. On the one hand, schools are obligated under Title IX and the Equal …

Response To Peer Sexual Harassment Of Lgbt Youth In Schools: Advocacy, Legislation And Litigation, Christine Hwang

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Dispelling The Misconceptions Raised By The Davis Dissent, Joan E. Schaffner

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The Supreme Court, in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, correctly held school districts liable under Title IX for deliberate indifference to known instances of student-on-student sexual harassment that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit. Professor Schaffner argues, however, that the majority failed to adequately address three concerns raised by the Davis dissent, that: (1) as a matter of federalism, this issue should be left to the states; (2) student peer sexual harassment does not constitute sex discrimination and (3) holding schools liable for student …

Boys Will Be Boys: Peer Sexual Harassment In Schools And The Implications Of Davis V. Monroe County Board Of Education, Tianna Mcclure

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The recent Supreme Court decision finding that the failure of schools to address and remedy peer sexual harassment in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, appears to be a victory for students and feminists alike. However, the Davis decision does not go far enough to insure the emotional and physical well-being of America's school children. While as a result of this decision schools must begin to recognize the true nature and severity of peer sexual harassment or face the possibility of monetary damages, Davis is, nevertheless, flawed. The Supreme Court operates under the assumption that actual knowledge is the …

Students As Targets And Perpetrators Of Sexual Harassment: Title Ix And Beyond, Martha Mccarthy

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article address legal protections for public school students who are the victims of sexual harassment inflicted by school employees or their classmates. Constitutional and statutory remedies are explored, with particular attention given to the liability of school districts under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that bars gender discrimination in federal assisted educational programs or activities. The article discusses in some detail the Title IX standards for students to be awarded damages from school districts for sexual harassment that the Supreme Court announced in Franklin v. Gwinnett Public Schools, Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District and …

Peer Sexual Harassment In California After Davis, John F. Walsh

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article discusses, from a practice standpoint, the significance Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education will have for California schools and colleges. The article first discusses Ninth Circuit interpretations of peer harassment prior to Davis, then analyzes Davis from a practice standpoint, raising issues left open by the Davis decision. The article then discusses the interrelationship between Title IX and California law. Finally, the article addresses institutional and personal liability and immunity defense issues.

Foreword, Heather Kirlin, Dominique Tauzin

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

The Deterrent Effect Of Arrest In Domestic Violence: Differentiating Between Victim And Perpetrator Response, Johanna Niemi-Kiesilainen

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The effects of arrest in domestic violence have been debated since Professor Lawrence Sherman et al. published their widely cited empirical studies in the 1980s and early 1990s. These studies, however, focused on the perpetrator and did not consider the effects of arrest on the victim's willingness to report repeat violence to the police. In this article, Professor Niemi-Kiesiliinen argues that the effect of arresting the perpetrator on the behavior of the victim is a crucial factor in determining the overall effectiveness of arrest. It is likely that the arrest of the perpetrator deters violence, but it is equally possible …

Peace Be With You, Mary E. Davis

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

In The Best Interests Of The Child: An Analysis Of Wisconsin Supreme Court Rulings Involving Same-Sex Couples With Children, Amy Persin Linnert

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The children of same-sex couples are often the unintended victims of legal discrimination against homosexuals. This note examines the Wisconsin Supreme Court's approach to the issues of adoption, custody and visitation involving the children of same-sex couples. Wisconsin was chosen as the focus of this note because it is widely recognized as a legally progressive state and is one of the few states that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This note urges the Wisconsin courts and legislature to reexamine the issue of same-sex marriage as a means of protecting the best interests of the children of same-sex …

A Cultural Rite Of Passage Or A Form Of Torture: Female Genital Mutilation From An International Law Perspective, Alexi Nicole Wood

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been performed on approximately 135 million girls and women worldwide. It is estimated that two million girls and women undergo FGM each year approximately 6,000 a day. Often the procedure is performed clandestinely by local, unskilled practitioners in unsafe conditions. As many as fifteen to thirty percent of all girls and women who undergo FGM die as a result of bleeding or infection. In addition to short-term complications such as extreme pain, shock and hemorrhaging, FGM can cause severe long-term complications that can include sterility due to infection, complications during childbirth, as well as extreme …

Setting The Record Straight: A Proposal For Handling Prosecutorial Appeals To Racial, Ethnic Or Gender Prejudice During Trial, Andrea D. Lyon

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article proposes that direct or indirect references to the protected classes of race and/or gender should always be subject to the Chapman v. California "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. Once the defendant has shown appeals to racial or gender bias in prosecutorial argument or other conduct during his trial, the burden must shift to the prosecution to show at an immediate hearing outside the presence of the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this impermissible appeal to bias did not affect the fairness of the defendant's trial. Furthermore, courts must take the examination of the prosecution's proof seriously, …

Seeking Redress For Gender-Based Bias Crimes- Charting New Ground In Familiar Legal Territory, Julie Goldscheid, Risa E. Kaufman

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Essay will analyze how courts have defined gender-motivation, focusing on the Civil Rights Remedy cases decided before the law was struck down, in an attempt to cull from those cases the standards federal courts have used to assess gender-motivation. The article will first provide an overview of existing and proposed laws that offer some form of redress for gender-motivated crimes. It will then analyze cases decided under the Civil Rights Remedy, focusing on two key issues that have arisen as policymakers struggle with whether and how gender-based bias crimes fit in the rubric of hate crimes legislation. The first …

Remembering Chrystal Macmillan: Women's Equality And Nationality In International Law, Karen Knop, Christine Chinkin

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article both continues and returns to the story of Chrystal Macmillan and the International Law Association. Some seventy-five years later, gender discrimination still exists in nationality law. For an American audience, Thailand's offer of nationality to U.S. golfer Tiger Woods, whose mother is Thai, highlighted the inequality of Thailand's laws on nationality. Although Thai women, as well as Thai men, can now pass their nationality to their children, the law continues to discriminate against women in other matters of nationality. Whereas the foreign wives of Thai men are specially entitled to apply for Thai nationality, the foreign husbands of …

Nurturing In The Service Of White Culture: Racial Subordination, Gestational Surrogacy, And The Ideology Of Motherhood, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

I approach the question of race, motherhood, and gestational surrogacy, by looking at courts' opinions in the case of Johnson v. Calvert and the racialized institution of motherhood. In the next section, I discuss motherhood as a social institution. I contrast some of the radical feminist critiques of motherhood, which recognize motherhood as institutionalized and compulsory, with Black feminist criticism, which understands motherhood as a site of power for African-American women. In Section III, I discuss the current popular understanding of the cultural and legal dictates of institutionalized motherhood from a historical perspective, focusing on the late eighteenth and early …

Taking Globalization Seriously: Towards General Jurisprudence (Book Review Of Globalization And Legal Theory By William Twining), Doron M. Kalir

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Part II provides an account of the jurisprudence of Globalization and Legal Theory. Due to the novelty of many of the issues discussed in the book, as well as their importance to the understanding of Twining's recommendations, I have provided a longer than usual account of several chapters. Part II touches upon one of the central jurisprudential dichotomies introduced by Twining—the distinction between general and particular jurisprudence. Twining compares different accounts of the distinction using pairs of canonical jurists. In particular, he compares H.L.A Hart's Postscript with Dworkin's Law's Empire. In this part, I juxtapose Twining's record of this …

Crossing Borderlands Of Inequality With International Legal Methodologies - The Promise Of Multiple Feminisms, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

This work provides insights into the gendered developments of international law. It explores the roles played by the gendered rule of law and by the conflation of economic, social, political, religious, cultural, and historic realities in the marginalization of women in the international, regional, and domestic spheres worldwide. The first section presents the myriad locations of women's persistent inequality. The next sets forth feminist theory that has been the basis of both the celebration of women's progress and the denunciation of women's subordination. The last part makes suggestions for the articulation of a methodology that follows the complex paths of …

Latinas, Culture And Human Rights: A Model For Making Change, Saving Soul, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

This essay provides an overview of progresses achieved for women in the Americas by virtue of the use of the human rights model to further women's rights and attain betterment of their lives. Specifically, this work reviews the location of Latinas both within and outside the United States fronteras. As women of color within larger U.S. society and as women within their comunidad Latina, Latinas experience different multifaceted subordinations. A human rights model that recognizes the multidimensional nature of gendered racial discrimination and of racialized gender discrimination can serve to improve the lives of Latinas as well as non-Latina women …

Using Evidence Of Women's Stories In Sexual Harassment Cases, Theresa M. Beiner

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gender And Nonfinancial Matters In The Ali Principles Of The Law Of Family Dissolution, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

The question for this issue is gender issues in the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. Overall, the Principles are an impressive effort to create clarity and coherence, given the disorganized and evolving state of family law. This commentary raises a few questions about the Principles’ treatment of nonfinancial issues, and suggests that this treatment should raise concerns about women’s interests upon divorce. First, I will briefly review the ALI’s position on nonfinancial matters. Second, I will discuss why the limitation to financial losses should matter to women; that is, I will investigate the costs of …

The Law Of White Spaces: Race, Culture, And Legal Education, Peter Goodrich, Linda G. Mills

Articles

The scene, drawn from memory, is a first-year law school classroom. It is the early 1980s and the class is on civil procedure. The teacher is a white woman. She is nervous, and the class is dominated by students who provide standard right answers to formulaic law school questions. Other points of view, particularly those of a critical or feminist nature, are either passed over quickly or ignored. Questions of color are never mentioned. More than that, the teacher never calls on any African-American students. Students of color are either ignored completely or told, when they have questions, “We are …

Gender Matters: Teaching A Reasonable Woman Standard In Personal Injury Law, Margo Schlanger

Articles

Reasonable care is, of course, a concept central to any torts class. But what is it? One very standard doctrinal move is to conceptualize reasonable care as that care shown by a "reasonable person" under like circumstances. The next step, logically, is to visualize this reasonable person. Visualization requires some important choices. For example, is the reasonable person old or young? Disabled or not? These are two questions that all the casebooks I have consulted discuss. But, oddly, no casebook of which I am aware deals with the trait that nearly invariably figures in our description of people: sex. If …

Gender Mainstreaming In Legal And Constitutional Affairs: A Reference Manual For Governments And Other Stakeholders, Christine Chinkin

Books

This is one of the sectoral guides that are part of the Gender Management System (GMS) resource kit, a series of publications presenting GMS. GMS is an innovative system developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat for gender mainstreaming. The system is a comprehensive network of structures, mechanisms and processes for bringing a gender perspective to bear on all government policies, plans, programmes and projects. The kit consists of a handbook which presents the GMS in detail; sectoral guides to gender mainstreaming in specific sectors; and resource documents to assist the user in gender analysis, monitoring, evaluation and other aspects of gender …

Overcoming Barriers In Communities

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Panelist Evelyn Cardona, discussed the work of the Brooklyn Coalition Against Family Violence, where she is the director, her own experience as a battered woman, and how she overcame it. Panelist Nechama Wolfson, president of the Shalom Task Force, then talked about the work of Shalom Task Force, a grasroots group of Orthodox Jewish women was doing on the community. Panelist Angela Lee, associate director of the New York Asian Women's Center, discussed the work her organization does with Asian battered women. Panelist Mircia Sanchez discussed the Harlem Dowling West Side Center for Children and Family Services, where she is …

Strong, Smart, And Bold Girls: The Girls Incorporated Approach To Education , Heather Johnston Nicholson, Mary F. Maschino

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Girls Incorporated is a national non profit youth organization that "inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold". in 200, Girls Inc. programs reached more than 740,000 girls and young women ages six through eighteen. A vast majority of these programs are conducted at schools during and after the school day. Program areas include science, media criticism, leadership, and substance use prevention. This article explores the different tactics, philosophies, and programs utilized used by Girls Inc.

Gendering The Pension Promise In Canada: Risk, Financial Markets And Neoliberalism, Mary Condon

Articles & Book Chapters

This article argues that retirement income provision in Canada is built on gendered assumptions, which produce material disadvantage for women. These inequalities are being exacerbated by current neoliberal trends towards the 'marketization' and individualization of pension provision, supported by tax, securities and corporate legal norms. The argument is developed using recent legislative changes to the operation of the Canada Pension Plan and recent developments in the regulation of mutual funds in Ontario as case studies. The article concludes by sketching out some possible points of departure for feminist interventions in pension privatization debates.