Gender & the Law

Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law

A petite single mother, Lois Jenson was among the first women hired by a northern Minnesota iron mine in 1975. In this brutal workplace, female miners were relentlessly threatened with pornographic graffiti, denigrating language, stalking, and physical assaults. Terrified of losing their jobs, the women kept their problems largely to themselves—until Lois, devastated by the abuse, found the courage to file a complaint against the company in 1984. Despite all of the obstacles the legal system threw at them, Lois and her fellow plaintiffs enlisted the aid of a dedicated team of lawyers and ultimately prevailed. Weaving personal stories with legal drama, Class Action shows how these terrifically brave women made history, although not without enormous personal cost. Told at a thriller’s pace, this is the story of how one woman pioneered and won the first sexual harassment class action suit in the United States, a legal milestone that immeasurably improved working conditions for American women.

Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia

In 1663, an indentured servant, Anne Orthwood, was impregnated with twins in a tavern in Northampton County, Virginia. Orthwood died soon after giving birth; one of the twins, Jasper, survived. Orthwood's illegitimate pregnancy sparked four related cases that came before the Northampton magistrates -- who coincidentally held court in the same tavern -- between 1664 and 1686. These interrelated cases and the decisions rendered in them are notable for the ways in which the Virginia colonists modified English common law traditions and began to create their own, as well as what they reveal about cultural and economic values in an Eastern shore community. Through these cases, the very reasons legal systems are created are revealed, namely, the maintenance of social order, the protection of property interests, the protection of personal reputation, and personal liberty. Through Jasper Orthwood's life, the treatment of the poor in small communities is set in sharp relief.
Anne Orthwood's Bastard was the winner of the 2003 Prize in Atlantic History, American Historical Association.

The Law of Sex Discrimination

An honest and informative text on sex discrimination and the law, THE LAW OF SEX DISCRIMINATION approaches the idea of using law to combat sex discrimination from a variety of contexts; for example, as an occasion for ideological disputes, as a reflection of contemporary policy debates over the future direction of society, or as part of the historical development (and response to) feminism. Appendices that deal with the court system, a brief discussion of how to outline cases, and a glossary of legal and technical terms are included.

Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, and Commentary

Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics

Is feminism dead, or has it gone mainstream? Are we into a third wave or still in the second wave? What did feminism accomplish in the past 40 years? What still needs to be done about persistent gender inequality? Do we need a new feminism?
In Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, Judith Lorber examines the various theories that have been developed to address the sources of gender inequality. She uncovers how these various theories have diverged and converged to form a political movement in the second wave of feminism.
In this lively text, Lorber acknowledges feminism's significant contributions to redressing gender inequality, celebrates its enormous accomplishments over the last forty years, documents its ongoing political activism, and--with an awareness of postmodern and third-wave trends--points toward its future.
Organized into three typologies, Gender Inequality provides an analysis of thirteen types of feminism and includes two provocative excerpts from primary sources to further enhance each chapter. Lorber also includes checklists for sources of gender inequality, politics, and contributions to social change for each feminist perspective.
Throughout, the text documents the sources and the politics of gender inequality, as seen by a variety of feminisms: gender reform feminisms (liberal, Marxist, socialist, post-colonial), who want to purge the gendered social order of practices that discriminate against women; gender resistance feminisms (radical, lesbian, psychoanalytic, standpoint), who want women's voices and perspectives to reshape the gendered social order; and gender rebellion feminisms (multicultural/multiracial, feminist studies of men, social construction, postmodern, third wave), who want to destroy the gendered social order by multiplying genders or doing away with them entirely.
The text's rich pedagogical features include a glossary, an index, updated and expanded text and readings lists, and updated Internet sources.
New to this edition:
* Fifteen new readings
* Separate chapters on Marxist feminism and socialist feminism
* A chapter on third-wave feminism
* "Do We Need a New Feminism?"--a chapter focusing on current trends in feminist theory, research, and politics

Transgender Rights

In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine

In an rewarding new study, Tucker explores the way in which Islamic legal thinkers understood Islam as it related to women and gender roles. In seventeenth and eighteenth century Syria and Palestine, Muslim legal thinkers gave considerable attention to women's roles in society, and Tucker shows how fatwas, or legal opinions, greatly influenced these roles. She challenges prevailing views on Islam and gender, revealing Islamic law to have been more fluid and flexible than previously thought. Although the legal system had a consistent patriarchal orientation, it was modulated by sensitivities to the practical needs of women, men, and children. In her comprehensive overview of a field long neglected by scholars, Tucker deepens our understanding of how societies, including our own, construct gender roles.

Adversarial Legal Writing and Oral Argument (University Casebook Series)

Highlights of this offering from Murray and DeSanctis' Legal Research and Writing include: Use of the TREAT paradigm and the doctrine of explanatory synthesis which are superior rhetorical devices to maximize the persuasive potential of adversarial legal writing; Multiple annotated samples of each form of work product (pre-trial motions to dismiss and motions for summary judgment, a writ petition, and appellate briefs) rather than offering one or two unannotated model briefs; An in-depth analysis of oral argument and moot court skills and strategies; Written by law professors with substantial experience in litigation in trial and appellate courts, one of whom is a former member of a national champion moot court team; Well suited for use in a second semester Introduction to Advocacy or Legal Writing course, or an upper division trial and appellate advocacy or advanced writing course.

Sexuality, Gender and the Law (University Casebook Series)

Eskeridge and Hunter's Sexuality, Gender and the Law provides detailed information on the sexuality, gender, and the law. The casebook provides the tools for fast, easy, on-point research. Part of the University Casebook Series®, it includes selected cases designed to illustrate the development of a body of law on a particular subject. Text and explanatory materials designed for law study accompany the cases.

Women's Lives, Men's Laws

In the past twenty-five years, no one has been more instrumental than Catharine MacKinnon in making equal rights real for women. As Peter Jennings once put it, more than anyone else in legal studies, she "has made it easier for other women to seek justice." This collection, the first since MacKinnon's celebrated Feminism Unmodified appeared in 1987, brings together previously uncollected and unpublished work in the national arena from 1980 to the present, defining her clear, coherent, consistent approach to reframing the law of men on the basis of the lives of women.

By making visible the deep gender bias of existing law, MacKinnon has recast legal debate and action on issues of sex discrimination, sexual abuse, prostitution, pornography, and racism. The essays in this volume document and illuminate some of the momentous and ongoing changes to which this work contributes; the recognition of sexual harassment, rape, and battering as claims for sexual discrimination; the redefinition of rape in terms of women's actual experience of sexual violation; and the reframing of the pornography debate around harm rather than morality. The perspectives in these essays have played an essential part in changing American law and remain fundamental to the project of building a sex-equal future.