Law and Gender Commons^™

Exercising The Right To Public Accommodations: The Debate Over Single-Sex Health Clubs, Miriam A. Cherry

Maine Law Review

Recently, the debate over single-sex health clubs gained national attention when a patent attorney, James Foster, sued for admission to Healthworks, a Massachusetts all-women's health club. Jurisdictions across the country have also been struggling with the issue, and no clear consensus has emerged. Besides highlighting a wide variance between state laws, the debate over single-sex health clubs illuminates tensions within current feminist thought and within the current legal doctrine surrounding public accommodations statutes. Specifically, the presence of single-sex health clubs, like the question of single-sex schools, asks whether, in some contexts, it is legally and morally acceptable for men and …

Islam's (In)Compatibility With The West?: Dress Code Restrictions In The Age Of Feminism, Lisa M. La Fornara

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Many secular Western countries have adopted some form of legislation regulating a woman's ability to wear traditional "Islamic" coverings. These governments often cite concerns for gender equality to justify the regulations. Although it is certainly true that some women are forced to wear hijab, many women cover by choice. These women's choices may be rooted in their faith, but the decisions are also commonly linked to other factors like culture. Thus, this Note argues, regulations that prevent a woman from choosing how to dress do not enhance her rights. Rather, the regulations replace a feared authoritarian man with an overly …

Power In The Age Of In/Equality: Economic Abuse, Masculinities, And The Long Road To Marriage Equality, Arianne Renan Barzilay

Akron Law Review

In an era when women have achieved formal legal equality, patriarchal power endures. In this article I take on a largely neglected subject: economic abuse. While this phenomenon has recently begun to generate awareness as a form of intimate partner violence, it currently lacks a theory and history with which to deeply understand it. A failure to recognize the profound roots enabling economic abuse contributes to its perpetuation, trivialization, and marginalization in legal thought. Such a failure has broad implications for gender equality. This Article offers both a history and a theory with which to understand the phenomenon’s deep roots. …

Surrogate Mothers, Gestational Carriers, And A Pragmatic Adaptation Of The Uniform Parentage Act Of 2000, John C. Sheldon

Maine Law Review

Recent medical advances that permit human conception without intercourse, in combination with sociological changes in our country, dramatically enlarge the population of adults who can produce or raise children. The legal price for this broadening of opportunity, however, is a diminishment of certainty: We are no longer sure whom we should identify as a child's parents. These are important questions, of course, because ready answers will quickly dampen disputes about custody and will immediately establish support obligations and the children's eligibility for health insurance, for inheritance, for Workers' Compensation benefits, and for Social Security survivor benefits. But as important as …

Taming Title Ix Tensions, Naomi M. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

The appropriate parameters for sexual assault disciplinary proceedings in public colleges and universities have historically been hotly contested. In recent years, the debate has focused on two competing sets of rights—the more established Title IX rights of the victim and the evolving constitutionally-based procedural due process rights of the accused. This debate over whose rights should be prioritized—those of the victim or those of the accused—is a classic civil rights enforcement dynamic. How can educational institutions effectuate the equality mandate of Title IX while not infringing on the constitutionally-based procedural due process rights of the accused? The Executive Branch, through …

The Communications Decency Act: Immunity For Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Haley C. Halverson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper reviews the original intent and historical application of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), most notably Section 230, with special regard to cases of Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation. Although the CDA was originally created to protect children online, Section 230 of the CDA has been interpreted by the courts to grant broad immunities to websites facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and adults alike. Through analyzing the genesis and evolution of the CDA, it becomes clear that court interpretations of Section 230 are starkly inconsistent with original Congressional intent, and that the primary way to avoid de facto decriminalization …

Newsroom: 'You Can't Help Being In Awe' 1-30-2018, Michael M. Bowden, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Perfecting Procreation, Courtney Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Pornography And Gender Inequality—Using Copyright Law As A Step Forward, Kayla Louis

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

No abstract provided.

The Next Forty Presidents, Ori Aronson

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

A thought experiment in feminist constitutionalism, this Article explores a radical argument: allow only women to be elected as the next forty U.S. presidents. While on its face blatantly discriminatory, the forty female presidents rule turns out to be a robustly justifiable idea, along multiple axes of political fairness, and not to women alone—rather to the electorate as a whole. Due to several of its unique characteristics, the presidency turns out to be particularly fitting to innovation that would correct past injustices of political exclusion. Corrective justice, affirmative action, feminist critique, voter autonomy, and the democratic costs of identity politics …

Bringing Up Baby Under The Fmla: How The Federal Unpaid Maternity Leave System In The United States Will Not Carry To Term, Samantha Jean Quan Forsyth

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

This Note will examine current maternity leave laws both within the United States and internationally, and argues that there are major issues with the existing federal law in the United States that render such legislation ineffective. This Note will further argue that because paid maternity leave remains almost exclusively as a benefit employers can choose to provide, the federal government should not only adopt a paid maternity leave program, but also ensure that it is broader and more encompassing than current legislation.

Sex, Drugs, Trump And Birth Control, Desire’E Martinelli

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

This Article explores both medical and legal reasons as to why OTC access to contraception is needed and justified. It also applies current changes in the government and discusses how the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could substantially affect birth control. Alternative and traditional options are presented and analyzed to determine their viability.

Little Sisters’ Sorrow: Conversations About Contraception And Reproductive Justice, Katrina Roze Myers

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

In light of recent political changes in the United States, the future of women’s health care has never been so uncertain. Using the debate on contraception access in the United States to frame the discussion, I demonstrate how religious groups and reproductive justice (RJ) activists might engage in constructive dialogue to protect women’s rights. I analyze the amicus briefs submitted on behalf of Catholic nuns and the government in Zubik v. Burwell, which illustrate that despite differences, RJ advocates and Catholic nuns have much in common—including a commitment to eradicate sex discrimination, ensure economic freedom, and protect women’s health. I …

Sb 104 - Carjacking, Fentanyl And "Upskirting", Katherine H. Krouse, Lauren R. Light

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act includes various amendments to Georgia’s criminal code. Three changes are most notable. First, the Act designates the offense of hijacking a motor vehicle as hijacking a motor vehicle in the first degree and creates the offense of hijacking a motor vehicle in the second degree. Second, the Act criminalizes the use of a device to film underneath or through an individual’s clothing. Lastly, the Act adds the drug Fentanyl and its various analogs to the list of controlled substances.

Old Issues New Perspectives, Ronald Griffin

Faculty Books and Book Contributions

The book commences with Ronald C. Griffin‟s essay Ghost Town: The Death of Marriage, the Birth of Cohabitation, and the Emergence of the Single Woman. In his essay he revisits the history of marriage, the economics of marriage, the rise and demise of childhood, the emergence of new couplings and the social traumas that come with them.

Section 704(B)(2) - The Back Door Into Chapter 7 For The Above-Median Debtor, Laura B. Bartell

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Sexual Privacy, Danielle Keats Citron

Faculty Scholarship

Those who wish to control and expose the identities of women and people from marginalized communities routinely do so by invading their privacy. People are secretly recorded in bedrooms and public bathrooms, and “up their skirts.” They are coerced into sharing nude photographs and filming sex acts under the threat of public disclosure of their nude images. People’s nude images are posted online without permission. Machine-learning technology is used to create digitally manipulated “deep fake” sex videos that swap people’s faces into pornography.

At the heart of these abuses is an invasion of sexual privacy—the behaviors and expectations that manage …

Privacy Of Information And Dna Testing Kits, Shanna Raye Mason

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In modern times, consumers desire for more control over their own health and healthcare. With this growing interest of control, direct to consumer DNA testing kits have never been more popular. However, many consumers are unaware of the potential privacy concerns associated with such use. This comment examines the popularity and privacy risks that are likely unknown to the individual consumer. This comment also addresses the shortcomings of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) in regard to protecting individual’s genetic information from misuse. This comment …

After Sex, Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Emancipating The Passive Muse: A Call For A Feminist Approach To Writing Biographies On Historical Women, Ina C. Seethaler

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This essay analyzes two popular biographies on historical women to interrogate how a focus on gender has shaped the genre: Nancy Ruben Stuart’s The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation (2008) and Jung Chang’s Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (2013). I argue that biographers who perpetuate gender stereotypes miss a momentous opportunity during the current life writing boom in the United States to educate readers on women’s social, cultural, and political contributions worldwide. In proposing that feminist-informed biographies are more accurate, complete, and make social …