Law and Gender Commons^™

Women In Federal Prison: Pathways In, Programs Out, Kim White

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

One of the fastest growing populations in most correctional systems is female offenders and the impact of these rising numbers is significant. The author speaks to the rising female population numbers, the types of crimes and behaviors that lead to their incarceration, the characteristics of female offenders, the impact their incarceration has on their families and children, and how gender responsive programming is pivotal to their effective and successful reentry into society.

Women In Prison: International Problems And Human Rights Based Approaches To Reform, Jenni Gainsborough

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The growth in prison populations is a world-wide phenomenon, and within the overall growth rate, many countries are seeing a disproportionate rate of increase among women. Despite differences in culture and resources, women everywhere face similar problems in prison systems, which have been designed primarily by and for men. These include sexual abuse, lack of appropriate medical care, loss of children and breakdown of families. The United States leads the world in both the overall size of its prison population and its rate of incarceration. Advocates for reform are increasingly turning to international human rights laws, standards and norms to …

Women And The Death Penalty: Racial Disparities And Differences, Harry Greenlee, Shelia P. Greenlee

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The death penalty in America has been studied, discussed, and written about extensively. The vast majority of researchers, however, have focused their study of the death penalty, or capital punishment, on male prisoners. This article examines the data related to women on death row since 1973, with particular attention to similar problems that have been documented for men, while highlighting racial differences and/or racial disparities where found. The subjects were 157 women who received death row sentences, forty-nine women currently on death row, and the eleven women executed since 1973. The data demonstrated that some racial disparities do exist with …

Hard Labor: The Legal Implications Of Shackling Female Inmates During Pregnancy And Childbirth, Geraldine Doetzer

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Despite international human rights guidelines that prohibit the practice, thirty-eight states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently allow corrections officials to shackle pregnant inmates during the third trimester of pregnancy. Of these, twenty-three states and the Bureau also allow restraints to be used during active labor. Only two state legislatures, Illinois and California, have addressed the issue of using physical restraints on pregnant inmates; the vast majority of states rely on corrections officials to craft policy.

This article analyzes both states' justifications for shackling policies as well as the Constitutional and human rights arguments that have been posed by …

The Interaction Of Customary Law And Microfinance: Women's Entry Into The World Economy, Shana Hofstetter

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This note examines the complicated relationship between microfinance and customary law. Microfinance, the practice of giving small, collateral-free loans to the poorest members of society, has gained great popularity in the last thirty years. These loan programs specifically target women and use women's traditional emphasis on groups to ensure success. Customary law can hinder microfinance ventures because of the restrictions these laws place on women's roles and responsibilities. Case studies on the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and Bangladesh explore how individual customary laws can hinder microfinance programs and women's micro-businesses. This note also discusses how microfinance programs act as catalysts of …

Red Light, Green Light: Assessing The Stop And Go In The Advancement Of Women In The Legal And Business Sectors, Megan Erb

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The purpose of this note is to identify the problems professional women have in building a career while caring for a family, and to provide the basis for creating a solution. Part I of this note addresses the various types of problems that force women out of the workplace, as well as the difficulties women have in reentering the job market. Part II of this note compares the alternative work schedules offered in the legal and business communities. Part III focuses on the success the business firms have had, with the help of business schools, in finding a practical solution …

The Ladies' Health Protective Association: Lay Lawyers And Urban Cause Lawyering, Felice J. Batlan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

When Is A Battered Woman Not A Battered Woman? When She Fights Back, Leigh S. Goodmark

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Foreword To Abortion Under State Constitutions: A State-By-State Analysis, Ronald D. Rotunda

Law Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Foreword to Paul Benjamin Linton's "Abortion Under State Constitutions: A State-by-State Analysis".

Mothers, Babies And Jail, Rebecca Johnson

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

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Eugenics: Reproductive Choice And Law Reform After World War Ii, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Janet Halley, Split Decisions: How And Why To Take A Break From Feminism, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] “My overarching reaction to Janet Halley's recent book, Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism, can be summarized with a one sentence cliché: The perfect is the enemy of the good.' She holds feminism to a standard of perfection no human endeavor could possibly meet, and then heartily criticizes it for falling short. Though Halley's myriad observations about feminism occasionally resonated with my own views and experiences, ultimately I remain unconvinced that taking a break from feminism would, for me, be either justified or productive. But I did (mostly) enjoy reading it. Halley is well …

Bare Justice: A Feminist Theory Of Justice And Its Application To Post-Genocide Rwanda, Megan M. Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

Within this Article I seek to develop a feminist legal theory of justice, by questioning the ability of traditional legal strategies to facilitate justice and identifying underlying principles that contribute to a more inclusive and holistic form of justice. Secondly, I apply this theory to the situation of women victims of sexual violence in post-genocide Rwanda, in an effort to explore how these principles can contribute to a realization of justice that empowers women.

In Part II of this Article, I seek to develop a set of principles underlying a feminist reconceptualization of justice. This endeavour is a three-step process: …

The First (Black) Lady, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I examines the role of First Lady, which has been undertheorized in legal scholarship, and how it promotes privileged white femininity, and in so doing, upholds patriarchy. Part II builds upon that discussion, explaining that the gender and racial norms that contribute to the traditional First Lady trope exemplify the intertwined nature of racism and sexism, which have been used to justify Black subordination. This section also examines how African Americans have embraced gender conformance as a way of attaining acceptance and status within the existing social order, specifically through the "Black lady" construct, which the campaign invoked to …

The Heart Of The Game: Putting Race And Educational Equity At The Center Of Title Ix, Verna L. Williams

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article examines how race and educational equity issues shape women's sports experiences.

License To Harass: Holding Defendants Accountable For Retaining Recidivist Harassers, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

Harassment victims who suffer a "tangible employment action," which the Supreme Court defines as a "significant change in employment status such as hiring, firing, failure to promote, reassignment, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits," enjoy unfettered recourse when they sue their employers. However, victims who do not endure what a court will deem a "tangible employment action" will have their prima facie case of harassment then rendered vulnerable to the interposition of an affirmative defense by a defendant-employer, who will escape liability if it can show "(a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct …

Irrational Exuberance For Babies: The Taste For Heterosexuality And Its Conspicuous Reproduction, Jose M. Gabilondo

Faculty Publications

This article targets a flying buttress of normative heterosexuality: its physical reproduction via procreation and its symbolic propagation through parents' pre-natal preferences for heterosexuality in future children. While the parental "taste for heterosexuality" is often asserted for the sake of future children themselves, this justification overlooks the role of parental self-interest, including anticipated social gains to parents from heterosexuality in children. Hence the taste sets the stage both for sexual orientation-based abuse of future children and the devaluation of sexual minority adults. Courts too have a taste for heterosexuality, shown here in two state court cases denying gays and lesbians …

(Mis)Appropriated Liberty: Identity, Gender Justice And Muslim Personal Law Reform In India, Cyra Akila Choudhury

Faculty Publications

This article argues that in order to emancipate Indian-Muslim women from an outdated family legal code, their position at the intersection of gender and a minority religion must be taken seriously. Proposals for reform that have been suggested by Western liberal, secular feminists that ignore the importance of women's religious affiliation fail to do this. Moreover, by making assumptions about the strength of secularism in India, the willingness of the state to enact legal reforms driven by gender concerns, and by failing to acknowledge the limits of formal rights alone in changing norms, these scholars do not account for the …

The Denial Of Emergency Protection: Factors Associated With Court Decision Making, Carol E. Jordan, Adam J. Pritchard, Pamela Wilcox, Danielle Duckett-Pritchard

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Despite the importance of civil orders of protection as a legal resource for victims of intimate partner violence, research is limited in this area, and most studies focus on the process following a court’s initial issuance of an emergency order. The purpose of this study is to address a major gap in the literature by examining cases where victims of intimate partner violence are denied access to temporary orders of protection. The study sample included a review of 2,205 petitions that had been denied by a Kentucky court during the 2003 fiscal year. The study offers important insights into the …

Unifying Disparate Treatment (Really), Martin J. Katz

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The Article will proceed in three parts. Part I will show the fragmented state of current disparate treatment law. Part II will demonstrate why this fragmentation is problematic as a normative matter, and why the I99I Civil Rights Act framework is superior to the Price Waterhouse and McDonnell Douglas frameworks. Part III will point the way toward a unified disparate treatment doctrine, in which all litigants will use the 1991 Act framework.

"It's Not Ok": New Zealand's Efforts To Eliminate Violence Against Women, Jeanmarie Fenrich, Jorge Contesse

Crowley Mission Reports

Over the last decade, New Zealand has made significant efforts to address an acute social problem—violence against women. In New Zealand, it is estimated that one in three women has been a victim of domestic violence. In an effort to combat the problem, New Zealand has enacted legislation and regulations which aim to prevent and eliminate domestic violence. It has also created visible public education campaigns calling upon people to stop “family violence” as it is called in New Zealand.

Consenting Adults? Why Women Who Submit To Supervisory Sexual Harassment Are Faring Better In Court Than Those Who Say No…And Why They Shouldn’T, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

Today, as a sexual harassment plaintiff who failed to report harassment before bringing suit, you likely will fare better under the law if you submitted to your harasser and engaged in relations with him, than you would if you had passively resisted until you were driven out of your employment. This Article examines the law’s illogical preference for plaintiffs who acquiesced to the propositions of their supervisors over those who resisted harassment but nonetheless failed to report it. It explores the roots of such a preference in society, as well as its consequences. Ultimately, this Article asks critical questions that …

Latinas/Os' And The Politics Of Knowledge Production: Latcrit Scholarship And Academic Activism As Social Justice Action, Margaret E. Montoya, Francisco Valdes

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professors Montoya and Valdes examine various ways of developing Latina/o legal studies in the United States. As background, they first outline and examine the three main models of knowledge-production established within legal academia during the past century or so: 1) the traditional or imperial model; 2) the safe-space or vanguard model, and; 3) the big-tent or democratic model. Using this historical template to contextualize current efforts in Latina/o legal studies both substantively and methodologically, they next review the record of LatCrit theorists over the past dozen years. With this analytical framework in place, they situate the LatCrit …

Making And Breaking Habits: Teaching (And Learning) Cultural Context, Self-Awareness, And Intercultural Communication Through Case Supervision In A Client-Service Legal Clinic, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins by offering teaching objectives that can be used to focus supervision and education on effective representation of clients from different cultures as issues arise in the course of representation. The Article then discusses the context of student supervision and explains how case supervision sessions can be extremely effective moments during which to pursue those teaching goals. The Article next examines vignettes that grew out of cases handled by the University of New Mexico's Clinical Law Program.

Culturally Effective Legal Interviewing And Counseling For The Mexican Immigrant - A Case Study, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Combating Gender Inequities In Law School: Time For A New Feminist Rhetoric That Encourages Practical Change, Caitlin Howell

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Banding Together: Reflections Of The Role Of The Women's Bar Association Of The District Of Columbia And The Washington College Of Law In Promoting Women's Rights, Jamie R. Abrams, Daniela Kraiem

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Presentation: Naming The Unnamed: Intellectual Property Rights Of Women Artists From India, Ruchira Goswani, Karubakee Nandi

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Terminating Maintenance Payments When An Ex-Spouse Cohabitates In Illinois: When Is Enough Enough?, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 435 (2008), Allan L. Karnes

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

"I'D Grab At Anything. And I'D Forget." Domestic Violence Victim Testimony After Davis V. Washington, 41 J. Marshall L. Rev. 937 (2008), Nancee Alexa Barth

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.