Law and Gender Commons^™

Migrating Marriage Equality Without Feminism: Obergefell V. Hodges And The Legalization Of Same-Sex Marriage In Taiwan, Chao-Ju Chen

Cornell International Law Journal

In 2017, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court issued a decision ruling the same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Celebrated as a victory for marriage equality readying Taiwan to become “the first in Asia” to legalize same-sex marriage, the decision’s reasoning demonstrated a remarkable resemblance to Obergefell v. Hodges in that they both embrace formal equality, endorse marital supremacy, and render feminist critique of marriage irrelevant or insignificant. Through an investigation of social movement dynamics and constitutional politics, this Article explores the hidden histories of marriage equality and the rise of marital supremacy, revealing how marriage equality has served as a site of contestation where …

The Feminist Expansion Of The Prohibition Of Torture: Towards A Post-Liberal International Human Rights Law?, Natalie R. Davidson

Cornell International Law Journal

International human rights law (IHRL), discourse, and activism have been the subject of well-known critiques. Two categories of critique are closely linked to the liberal ideology underlying the human rights project, and limit the project’s ability to further profound change. The “critique of justification” exposes the field’s formalist argumentative practices, which struggle to justify proposed normative solutions. The “critique of representation” highlights the narrow ways in which injustice and violence are portrayed, denounced and addressed in international human rights discourse. These weaknesses are all the more troubling in the contemporary populist authoritarian era. Yet contrary to many critical scholars who …

Transnational Legal Feminisms: Challenges And Opportunities, Sital Kalantry

Cornell International Law Journal

Transnational legal feminism reflects the interconnection and interchange of feminist legal theories and feminist legal solutions across multiple jurisdictions. Some advocates who work across jurisdictions transpose feminist ideas and framings developed in one country to another country often without reflection. Often women’s rights advocates and scholars draw from feminist ideas, theories, and legal solutions developed in different temporal, historical, and social, and other contexts. There are number of opportunities this interchange creates but also a number of challenges. Feminists in the transnational world should recognize that practices can (but do not always) vary in meaning across different global contexts. Transnational …

Feminist Approaches To The Regulation Of Sex Work: Patterns In Transnational Governance Feminist Law Making, Hila Shamir

Cornell International Law Journal

Worldwide, through the effective spread of feminist ideas and modes of governance (Governance Feminism), two main feminist regulatory approaches to sex work/prostitution became widely accepted: neo-abolitionism and regulation and decriminalization. This Article argues that in reality both feminist approaches are characterized by inherent flaws in their implementation that end up causing distinct harms to the most vulnerable sex workers. As a possible alternative to both of these regulatory approaches, this Article uses an Israeli case study to propose a hybrid approach to the regulation of sex work. This approach consists of a formally declared abolitionist goal with wide informal characteristics …

"I Assumed Chicago Would Be In The Forefront": Comments On The Movement To End Prostitution With Survivor-Leader Brenda Myers-Powell, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

For many years in the 2000’s, researcher Jody Raphael, teamed with prostitution-survivor Brenda Myers-Powell, undertook a myriad of speaking engagements in the Chicago metropolitan area, intended to raise awareness of the violence and coercion in the sex trade industry. Ten years ago, they were asked to make a video of their presentation. Recently, Dignity editors came across the video and asked for an update on the conversation. This piece is the result.

The Impact Of Prosecutorial Misconduct, Overreach, And Misuse Of Discretion On Gender Violence Victims, Leigh Goodmark

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Prosecutors are failing victims of gender violence as witnesses and when they become defendants in cases related to their own victimization. But it is questionable whether that behavior should be labeled misconduct. The vast majority of these behaviors range from misuses of discretion to things that some might consider best practices in handling gender violence cases. Nonetheless, prosecutors not only fail to use their discretion appropriately in gender violence cases, but they take affirmative action that does tremendous harm in the name of saving victims and protecting the public. The destructive interactions prosecutors have with victims of gender violence are …

Disrupting The Androcentric Prison System, Amber Hanke

Audre Lorde Prize

No abstract provided.

The Responsibility To Protect As Applied To Asylum Seekers In The United States, Luke Doyle Galland

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Are Seemingly Satisfied Female Lawyers Running For The Exits? Resolving The Paradox Using National Data, Joni Hersch, Erin E. Meyers

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Despite the fact that women are leaving the practice of law at alarmingly high rates, most previous research finds no evidence of gender differences in job satisfaction among lawyers. This Article uses nationally representative data from the 2015 National Survey of College Graduates to examine gender differences in lawyers’ job satisfaction, and finds that any apparent similarity of job satisfaction between genders likely arises from dissatisfied female JDs sorting out of the legal profession at higher rates than their male counterparts, leaving behind the most satisfied women. This Article also provides a detailed examination of the specific working conditions that …

Straight Actors In Lgbt Roles: Creative Casting Or Employment Discrimination?, Erica Ruff

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the trend of casting straight actors in LGBT roles, termed "gay face," and explores its implications as a form of employment discrimination. It argues that this practice limits opportunities for LGBT actors and discusses the legal challenges in addressing this issue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which does not explicitly cover sexual orientation. The note highlights the tension between anti-discrimination laws and First Amendment protections for artistic expression, noting that courts often favor the latter.

Sex Segregation In Sports As A Public Health Issue, Nancy Leong, Emily Bartlett

Cardozo Law Review

This Article contributes to the growing debate about the merits of sex segregation in sports by approaching sex segregation in sports as a public health issue. Participation in sports has profound consequences for women's health. Engagement in athletics affects physical fitness, disease prevention, self-esteem, mental wellness, eating disorders, and many other health-related issues.

Sex segregation in sports reduces women's participation in sports and changes the nature of the sports in which women participate. Both of these issues have implications for the myriad health issues we discuss. The Article argues that analysis under the Equal Protection Clause of governmentally-imposed sex segregation …

Are Police Obsolete? Breaking Cycles Of Violence Through Abolition Democracy, V. Noah Gimbel, Craig Muhammad

Cardozo Law Review

On February 5, 2018, Baltimore activists organized a successful "cease-fire weekend," during which no one was killed-and the cops were not to thank. Indeed, as community anti-violence organizers worked to cool hot feuds in order to prove that endless violence was not their destiny, the Baltimore Police Department was sinking ever-deeper into perhaps the most shocking police corruption scandal of the twenty-first century.

The stark contrast between ordinary city residents risking their safety to fight against violence in their community and a corrupt police force committing and propagating acts of violence in the microcosmic streets of Baltimore raises what may …

But, Men And Women Are Equally Compensated, Right? An Examination Of Why An Equal Rights Amendment In New York's Constitution Will End The Wage Gap, Amanda B. Slutsky

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note proposes an ERA for New York’s constitution to end the wage gap between men and women, and uses language from H.J. Res 52 and S.B. No. 1919. To demonstrate why New York needs the amendment, this Note will discuss Maryland’s and California’s ERAs and equal pay laws to establish the benefits of an ERA and how both ERAs and equal pay laws, together, help shrink the wage gap in those states. With an ERA, New York’s courts will analyze sex-based discrimination claims with strict scrutiny, which provides heightened protection because women will be considered a suspect class. …

"All The Women Are White, All The Blacks Are Men, But Some Of Us Are Brave", R.A. Lenhardt, Kimani Paul-Emile

Fordham Law Review Online

In 1982, African American feminists, writers, and educators Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith co-edited a foundational volume of essays designed to map a program for African American women’s studies and research on issues ranging from racial bias and sexism, to homophobia entitled: “All the Women Are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave.” We reflected on that volume when we accepted the Fordham Law Review’s invitation to take part in its Online symposium honoring 100 years of women at Fordham Law School.

Disturbing Disparities: Black Girls And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Leah A. Hill

Fordham Law Review Online

Recent scholarship on the school-to-prison pipeline has zeroed in on the disturbing trajectory of black girls. School officials impose harsh punishments on black girls, including suspension and expulsion from school, at alarming rates. The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals that one of the harshest forms of discipline—out of school suspension—is imposed on black girls at seven times the rate of their white peers. In the juvenile justice system, black girls are the fastest growing demographic when it comes to arrest and incarceration. Explanations for the disproportionate disciplinary, arrest, and incarceration rates …

100 Years Of Women At Fordham: A Foreword And Reflection, Elizabeth B. Cooper

Fordham Law Review Online

As we reflect back on 100 Years of Women at Fordham Law School, we have much to celebrate. In contrast to the eight women who joined 312 men at the Law School in 1918—or 2.6 percent of the class—women have constituted approximately 50 percent of our matriculants for decades. Life for women at the Law School has come a long way in more than just numbers. For example, in 1932, the Law School recorded the first known practice of “Ladies’ Day,” a day on which some professors would call on women, who otherwise were expected to be silent in their …

Respect Existence Or Expect Resistance: Fundraising For Trans Law Center, Lara Martz, Sage Kramer-Urner

Student Engagement Posters

Lara Martz and Sage Kramer-Urner discuss student engagement at Linfield College with regard to a fundraising campaign to benefit the Trans Law Center.

Public Interest Litigation & Women’S Rights: Cases From Nepal & India, Jordan E. Stevenson

2019 Symposium

As a complex, diverse and dynamic region with diverging, constantly changing constitutional and jurisprudential contexts as well as lasting legacies of patriarchy, South Asia’s traditions of public interest litigation are one of the most well-studied institutions by Western audiences due to their contradictory progressive and innovative nature. Particularly in India, where public interest litigation gives ordinary citizens extraordinary access to the highest courts of justice, questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of public interest litigation as a tool to address gender disparities across the region. Although Supreme Court justices have been a key ally in eliminating legal barriers …

Bloody Hell: How Insufficient Access To Menstrual Hygiene Products Creates Inhumane Conditions For Incarcerated Women, Lauren Shaw

Texas A&M Law Review

For thousands of incarcerated women in the United States, dealing with menstruation is a nightmare. Across the country, many female prisoners lack sufficient access to feminine hygiene products, which negatively affects their health and rehabilitation. Although the international standards for the care of female prisoners have been raised in attempt to eliminate this issue, these stan- dards are often not followed in the United States. This Comment argues that denial of feminine hygiene products to female prisoners violates human de- cency. Additionally, this Comment considers possible constitutional violations caused by this denial, reviews current efforts to correct this problem, and …

On The Basis Of Sex(Ual Orientation Or Gender Identity): Bringing Queer Equity To School With Title Ix, Chan Tov Mcnamarah

Cornell Law Review

A transgender fourth-grader's teacher refuses to address her by her preferred name and gender. A lesbian high-school student's sexual education class does not teach her about topics relevant to her experience as a queer woman. A gay male college student's campus does not have LGBT-specific post-sexual assault care. Under aformal equality approach to Title IX, can any of these discriminations be remedied? Unfortunately not. And yet, recent victories for the LGBT community have been won on formal equality arguments-that LGBT persons should be treated the same as heterosexual, cisgender persons. In the shadow of marriage equality, the LGBT community has …