Law and Gender Commons^™

Parallel Lives: Women's Rights And Lesbian Rights Litigation, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

I love the title of this panel because it gave me a chance to think about the historical themes and emerging issues in law related to women's rights, which of course is a mere endless set of possibilities.

I spent much of the last decade doing lesbian and gay civil rights litigation, and the question that I will focus on today grows out of that work and is a comparative one or at least a relational one. The question is this: What is the relationship between women's rights litigation as it has evolved in the last thirty years and lesbian …

Panel One: Gender, Race, And Sexuality: Historical Themes And Emerging Issues In Women's Rights Law: Introduction, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Hello and welcome. We are thrilled to see you all here. I speak on behalf of my co-panelists in thanking Sarah Weddington for laying some of the groundwork on which we are standing and for laying some of the foundation that gives rise to the issues we are going to talk about on this panel.

United Nations Convention Documents In Light Of Feminist Theory, R. Christopher Preston, Ronald Z. Ahrens

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article proposes that language identifying human rights of women in U.N. Conference documents has its origin in several different feminist theories. An understanding of these theories can help to clarify meaning, resolve inconsistencies, and predict the future direction of language in U.N. documents. Part I examines three prominent feminist theories and their relation to international law. Part II examines the history of women's rights in U.N. documents and examines the influence of feminist theory on the document language. Using the Women and the Economy section of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Platform for Action (Platform for Action), Part …

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.

Exploring Feminism Globally To Achieve Global Feminism, Anna M. Han

Faculty Publications

Edited Speech delivered on October 6, 2000 at the University of San Diego Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues Conference on Intersectionality and Critical Race Feminism.

In writing this article, I kept thinking of the various stories that I heard during the workshops in Beijing and again I was struck by the commonality of the underlying issues facing women from around the world. While there may be dramatic political, cultural, linguistic and economic differences, I posit that there were more similarities than there were differences.

Holding-Up More Than Half The Sky: Marketization And The Status Of Women In China, Anna M. Han

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine generally how Chinese women fared under communism and more specifically, delve into how marketization has adversely impacted the status of women in China. It is this author's contention that despite the overall improvements in the standard of living, Chinese women are increasingly being marginalized economically. The long-term effects of subjugating the advancement of women for the immediate benefits of China's experimentation with a market economy hold vast implications for the future of the country. As China progresses economically, politically and socially, it cannot afford to leave half of its population behind as …

Human Rights In Transition-- Freedom From Fear, Dorothea Beane

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Restricting The Rights Of Poor Mothers: An International Human Rights Critique Of "Workfare", Shruti Rana

Faculty Scholarship

In every society, the work that women do is undervalued and unrecognized. Political and social tensions behind conceptions of work, motherhood, and equality can ignite movements that threaten the human rights of women. One such movement is underway in the United States where recent “Workfare” provisions specifically target and punish the most vulnerable members of society under the guise of reform and morality. This critique of Workfare aims to demonstrate some of the dynamism and power of a human rights framework, and to lay the groundwork for effective action to improve the plight of the single mothers who rely on …

Women's Rights And The Public Morals Exception Of Gatt Article 20, Liane M. Jarvis

Michigan Journal of International Law

The public morals exception in Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) could and should be interpreted in accordance with evolving human rights law on women's rights. This clause provides an exception to the general rule that members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) cannot take measures against other Members that would restrict trade. Under Article XX, WTO members may restrict trade for a variety of social reasons, including protecting the environment, preventing prison labor, and otherwise promoting "public morals.” This Note will argue in particular that a nation should be allowed to invoke the public …

Striking The Rock: Confronting Gender Equality In South Africa, Penelope E. Andrews

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article analyzes the status of women's rights in the newly democratic South Africa. It examines rights guaranteed in the Constitution and conflicts between the principle of gender equality and the recognition of indigenous law and institutions. The Article focuses on the South African transition to democracy and the influence that feminist agitation at the international level has had on South African women's attempts at political organization. After dissecting the historical position of customary law in South Africa and questioning its place in the new democratic regime. The author argues that, although South African women have benefited from the global …

Striking The Rock: Confronting Gender Equality In South Africa, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This Article analyzes the status of women's rights in the newly democratic South Africa. It examines rights guaranteed in the Constitution and conflicts between the principle of gender equality and the recognition of indigenous law and institutions. The Article focuses on the South African transition to democracy and theinfluence that feminist agitation at the international level has had on South African women's attempts at political organization. After dissecting the historical position of customary law in South Africa and questioning its place in the new democratic regime, the author argues that, although South African women have benefited from the global feminist …

Pink Elephants In The Rape Trial: The Problem Of Tort-Type Defenses In The Criminal Law Of Rape, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

Violence Against Aboriginal Women In Australia: Possibilities For Redress Within The International Human Rights Framework, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

This Article addresses the issue of violence against Aboriginal women. Part I concerns the historical violenceagainst Aboriginal people generally, and Part II concerns violence against Aboriginal women in particular. Part III considers how the priorities and perspectives of Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal women differ insignificant ways despite their congruence in others. In particular, the Article evaluates the awkward relationship between Aboriginal women and the largely white feminist movement in Australia as a consequence of these different priorities and perspectives, and suggests how political victories for white or non-Aboriginal women could be translated into gains for Aboriginal women. The fourth part …

Women's Rights As Human Rights - Rules, Realities And The Role Of Culture: A Formula For Reform, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Beijing, China. Tuesday, September 5, 1995. Beijing International Conference Center (BICC). The afternoon plenary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women: Equality, Peace, Development is about to start in a hall too small to seat everyone who wants to be there. Other than places for some of the delegates from each attending State, space is limited and in high demand. A lucky few lined up for hours to get a ticket; many ended up negotiating prime space in front of one of several TV screens strategically located throughout the building. A hushed silence fell in the hall and …

Book Review. Fetal Protection In The Workplace And At Women's Expense, Julia C. Lamber

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Public Policy And Private Lives: Social And Spatial Dimensions Of Women's Poverty And Welfare Policy In The United States, Ann R. Tickamyer

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fighting For Their Lives: Women, Poverty, And The Historical Role Of United States Law In Shaping Access To Women's Health Care, Susan L. Waysdorf

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"A Masculinist Vision Of Useful Labor" Popular Ideologies About Women And Work In The United States, 1820 To 1939, Patricia Cooper

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Limitations Of Rational Discourse, Empirical Data, And Legal Mandates As Tools For The Achievement Of Gender Equity In American Higher Education, Susan J. Scollay, Carolyn S. Bratt

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defending Pornography: Free Speech & The Fight For Women’S Rights, Nadine Strossen

Books

The newest attacks on the First Amendment and on free expression have come from a vocal and influential segment of the feminist movement that has launched a successful - and puritanical - crusade against "pornography" as the root of discrimination and violence against women. But, as Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, forcefully argues, this view of sexuality as inherently dangerous does profound damage to human rights in general, and to women's rights in particular. In Defending Pornography, Strossen shows that, since the late 1970s, a new and startling alliance has been fused between "procensorship" feminists, most …

Remarks Cecilia Medina-Quiroga Conference On The Interventional Protection Of Reproductive Rights: Reproduction, Rights, And Reality: How Facts And Law Can Work For Women , Cecelia Medina-Quiroga

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beijing Panel Brings Together Activists And Delegates, Alison E. Graves

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Legitimating The Illegitimate: A Comment On 'Beyond Rape', Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Professor Dripps's provocative proposal, as I understand it, is that we think of sex as a commodity and rape as the theft of that commodity. Understood as such, the theft of sex accomplished through violence or the threat of violence is a twofold wrong: it violates our "negative" right to refuse to have sex with anyone for any or no reason, and violence or the threat of violence infringes our right to personal, physical security. Therefore, the violent expropriation of sex should be punished as a major felony, as is violent rape, at least in theory.
  
Furthermore, according to Dripps, …

Patriarchy, Paternalism, And The Masks Of Fetal Protection., A. Kimberley Dayton

Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a response to John Kennedy's defense of Johnson Controls, Inc.'s fetal protection policy which was struck down last year in International Union, UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc. A unanimous Supreme Court held in the case that the policy, which excluded women from a "fetotoxic" workplace, violated the federal employment discrimination laws. The Court's decision was issued only a day before Kennedy was scheduled to debate the issue of whether Title VII bars fetal protection policies with Professor Elinor Schroeder at the Kansas Journal's first symposium on March 21-22. 1991. The Court's decision rendered the technical statutory issues …

Sex Discrimination (Update 1), Christina B. Whitman

Book Chapters

During the 1980s and early 1990s intense disagreement has arisen over the appropriate strategy for eliminating sex discrimination. Some courts and commentators argue for gender-neutral rules that define categories in purely functional terms. Others, who point out that gender-neutral rules promise equality only for women who can meet a ‘‘male standard,’’ think that legal distinctions between the sexes are not only appropriate but necessary, at least in cases involving perceived biological differences. Still others refuse to think in terms of sameness and difference. They analyze each issue by asking whether the disputed rule furthers the domination of men and the …

Shared Interests: Promoting Healthy Births Without Sacrificing Women's Liberty, Dawn E. Johnsen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Liberty, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is commonly and rightly understood in this country that our constitutional system ensures, or seeks to ensure, that individuals are accorded the greatest degree of personal, political, social, and economic liberty possible, consistent with a like amount of liberty given to others, the duty and right of the community to establish the conditions for a moral and secure collective life, and the responsibility of the state to provide for the common defense of the community against outside aggression. Our distinctive cultural and constitutional commitment to individual liberty places very real restraints on what our elected representatives can do, even …

Women's Rights Litigation In The 1980s: More Of The Same?, Tracey E. George, Lee Epstein

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the September 1983 issue of Judicature,Karen O'Connor and Lee Epstein published the results of their examination of the fate of gender-based cases in the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1970s. Overall, they found that the justices were quite receptive to such claims, supporting the women's rights position in about 58 percent of the 63 disputes resolved between the 1969 and 1980 terms.

Will Roe V. Wade Survive The Rehnquist Court?, Dawn E. Johnsen, Marcy Wilder

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Webster And Women's Equality, Dawn E. Johnsen, Marcy J. Wilder

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.