Legal Feminism

The living experience of practice imparts a special vitality toLegal Feminism, as does the personal voice. . . . Offers readers a kind of you-are-there viewpoint that law students hunger for and that any legal audience appreciates.-Elizabeth Rapaport, Dickason Professor of Law, University of New MexicoôA significant and unique contribution to the field of jurisprudence. . . . Links feminist jurisprudence to the central debates and approaches of the jurisprudential field in general, and shows how it can serve as a general set of jurisprudential principles that transcend what are usually thought to be its gendered boundaries.ö-Lucinda M. Finley, University of Buffalo Law School, State University of New YorkIn the late 1970s, feminist scholars and activists joined together to build a movement aimed at bringing feminist theory and experiences to the practice and teaching of American law. Three decades later, the feminist jurisprudence movement has taken root, with courts and legislatures addressing matters of sex and gender inequality, and law schools employing feminist and post-feminist theory in the classroom. The time is ripe to reflect on the past, present, and future directions of feminist jurisprudence, and there is no better person to do this than Ann Scales.Written by a founding contributor to feminist jurisprudence,Legal Feminismsituates that movement within the larger context of Western law and philosophy, focusing first on common problem areas of legal theory and decision-making, and then explaining how feminist jurisprudence can analyze and address these issues in new ways. Throughout, Scales draws on legal disputes to show how feminist theory works in the courtroom and other real-life arenas.Part personal memoir, part primer, and part treatise,Legal Feminismis a de-jargonized, lively account of how feminist jurisprudence can solve traditional legal conflicts, and why it matters to anyone committed to building an equitable and progressive society.

This book offers powerful analyses of the relationship between law and gender and new understandings of the limits of, and opportunities for, legal reform drawn from the experiences of women and from critical perspectives developed within other disciplines.

Feminist legal theory is one of the most dynamic fields in the law, and it affects issues ranging from child custody to sexual harassment. Since its initial publication in 2006, Feminist Legal Theory: A Primer has received rave reviews. Now, in the completely updated second edition of this outstanding primer, Nancy Levit and Robert R.M. Verchick introduce the diverse strands of feminist legal theory and discuss an array of substantive legal topics, pulling in recent court decisions, new laws, and important shifts in culture and technology. The book centers on feminist legal theories, including equal treatment theory, cultural feminism, dominance theory, critical race feminism, lesbian feminism, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism. Readers will find new material on women in politics, gender and globalization, and the promise and danger of expanding social media. Updated statistics and empirical analysis appear throughout. The authors, prominent experts in the field, also address feminist legal methods, such as consciousness-raising and storytelling. The primer offers an accessible and pragmatic approach to feminist legal theory. It demonstrates the ways feminist legal theory operates in real-life contexts, including domestic violence, reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, education, sports, pornography, and global issues of gender. The authors highlight a sweeping range of cutting-edge topics at the intersection of law and gender, such as single-sex schools, abortion, same-sex marriage, rape on college campuses, and international trafficking in women and girls. At its core, Feminist Legal Theory shows the importance of the roles of law and feminist legal theory in shaping contemporary gender issues.

"In the completely updated second edition of this outstanding primer, Nancy Levit and Robert R.M. Verchick introduce the diverse strands of feminist legal theory and discuss an array of substantive legal topics, pulling in recent court decisions, new laws, and important shifts in culture and technology. The book centers on feminist legal theories, including equal treatment theory, cultural feminism, dominance theory, critical race feminism, lesbian feminism, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism. Readers will find new material on women in politics, gender and globalization, and the promise and danger of expanding social media. Updated statistics and empirical analysis appear throughout. At its core, Feminist Legal Theory shows the importance of the roles of law and feminist legal theory in shaping contemporary gender issues"--Unedited summary from book cover.

Mary Joe Frug charts a course for future feminist thinking about law. She identifies the political and theoretical limitations of earlier strands of legal feminism and demonstrates why postmodernism offers more hope for women in law.

The contributions to this collection are written by legal advocates, community activists and legal scholars. The ten essays examine theories of intersectionality to demonstrate how race, class, sexual orientation, gender and identity have been integrated into legal scholarship and activism in an attempt to shape legal policy and practice.

"Catharine A. MacKinnon, noted feminist and legal scholar, explores and develops her original theories and practical proposals on sexual politics and law. These discourses, originally delivered as speeches, have been brilliantly woven into a book that retains all the spontaneity and accessibility of a live presentation. Through these engaged works on issues such as rape, abortion, athletics, sexual harassment, and pornography, MacKinnon seeks feminism on its own terms, unconstrained by the limits of prior traditions. She argues that viewing gender as a matter of sameness and difference--as virtually all existing theory and law have done--covers up the reality of gender, which is a system of social hierarchy, an imposed inequality of power"--Back cover.

Attuned to the social contexts within which laws are created, feminist lawyers, historians, and activists have long recognized the discontinuities and contradictions that lie at the heart of efforts to transform the law in ways that fully serve women's interests. At its core, the nascent field of feminist legal history is driven by a commitment to uncover women's legal agency and how women, both historically and currently, use law to obtain individual and societal empowerment. Feminist Legal History represents feminist legal historians' efforts to define their field, by showcasing historical research and analysis that demonstrates how women were denied legal rights, how women used the law proactively to gain rights, and how, empowered by law, women worked to alter the law to try to change gendered realities. Encompassing two centuries of American history, thirteen original essays expose the many ways in which legal decisions have hinged upon ideas about women or gender as well as the ways women themselves have intervened in the law, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's notion of a legal class of gender to the deeply embedded inequities involved in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, a 2007 Supreme Court pay discrimination case. Contributors: Carrie N. Baker, Felice Batlan, Tracey Jean Boisseau, Eileen Boris, Richard H. Chused, Lynda Dodd, Jill Hasday, Gwen Hoerr Jordan, Maya Manian, Melissa Murray, Mae C. Quinn, Margo Schlanger, Reva Siegel, Tracy A. Thomas, and Leti Volpp