Feminist Law Professors

On Racism and Sexism in the Case of Shirley Sherrod

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Janell Hobson writes here at the Ms. Magazine blog about the attacks on and defenses of Shirley Sherrod. Hobson writes that the ”conversations unfolded the way they did because a black woman was at the center.” Hobson aptly critiques both the right and the left:

We black women become easy targets of attack for two reasons:

1) Those who initiate the attacks–the Andrew Breitbarts of this world–feel they have social and cultural “permission” to do so.

2) Those who respond to these attacks by adding their own voices of condemnation–the initial responses of the NAACP and the USDA–which reacted to doctored video footage of Sherrod’s speech–feel that black women, as a group, can be sacrificed for political expediency.

However, in the defense of Sherrod we see a different but also problematic response to the black female body: the guilt of witnessing what liberal pundits like to term the “assassination,” the “lynching,” or the “bus-throwing” of the strong black woman. She is framed as the noble victim who stands firm against the winds of injustice because this world done her wrong. Her slow, defiant walk to the stake for her witch-burning (or lynching, as the case may be) inspires a different kind of racial guilt.

Read the full post here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Politics, Race and Racism, Sexism in the Media | Comments Off

Shirley Lung on (All) Women’s Work

Posted on July 29, 2010 by rrobson

Work has long been an issue for feminist legal scholars, but in a new article just posted on ssrn here, Professor Shirley Lung argues that we need to refocus.

Lung is addressing the new “family/work” policies often adopted by employers as a reaction to the economic recession and the proverbial wisdom that such policies are feminist and family-friendly. She writes:

which workers are the most likely beneficiaries of reduced or compressed work weeks? Which workers are the least likely beneficiaries? A growing feminist legal scholarship critiques the mainstream work/family discourse for focusing on the work/family conflicts of professional women to the exclusion of poor and low-income women. The policy reforms spawned by the work/family discourse-reduced hours, increased part-time jobs, compressed work weeks-reflect the interests of professional women who are in a position to trade income for time, and thus, to spend less time at paid work. The time crunch faced by poor and working class women necessitates a far broader discussion. The work/family conflicts of poor and low-income women are framed by social welfare policies, a low-wage labor market, and immigration policies that deny low-income women the right to make meaningful choices about paid work, unpaid work, and caregiving. These issues have not figured into work/family discussions.

While those policies might look feminist and family-friendly, it depends on one’s perspective. Indeed, she argues that the “potential for work/family policies to reinforce intra-class self-interest and inter-class conflict, as well as hierarchies along race and citizenship, are almost limitless.”

Lung examines three specific cases, grounding her theorizing about improving our notions of work justice. But ultimately, her article reminds us that the rallying cry of struggle for workers’ rights over their (OUR?) own time decades ago – – – “eight hours labor, eight hours rest, and eight hours for what we will” – – – remains inherently radical and provocative. Especially when it is applied across class, race, citizenship, and yes, gender categories.

~ Ruthann Robson

Posted in Academia | Comments Off

Checked Baggage with a Murderous Message?

Posted on July 29, 2010 by cyrachoudhury

Most of us have had the experience of wondering which one of the ubiquitous and indistinguishable black suitcase is ours at the baggage claim. However, this takes the need to make those bags easily identifiable to a new low.

Novelty suitcase stickers go viral

The abducted flight attendant is one of four designs a pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have developed to make luggage stand out on airport carousels.

A pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have taken the notion of making a suitcase stand out on the luggage rack to a whole new level.

The abducted flight attendant is one of four designs a pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have developed to make luggage stand out on airport carousels.The abducted flight attendant is one of four designs a pair of Vancouver entrepreneurs have developed to make luggage stand out on airport carousels. (thecheeky.com)Colin Hart and Ryan McCormick have created large stickers that can be placed on luggage to give it the appearance that something strange or nefarious is going on.

The stickers make it appear that the suitcases have been ripped open to expose either stacks of money, cocaine, an abducted flight attendant or a case full of sex toys.

The pair operate a website that sells novelty items called thecheeky.com.

Hart said he got the idea while observing people watching nearly identical bags circling the carousel at Vancouver International Airport.

“You know they’re just standing there like zombies just looking at these things,” he told CBC News.

“Vote For Me Because of My Gender”

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Here’s the Washington Post’s take on it:

A new video shows Ken Buck, the leading Republican candidate in a Colorado Senate race, repeatedly using the word “bull—-” and saying that voters should choose him over his female primary opponent “because I do not wear high heels.”

Buck, the Weld County district attorney, made the remarks at a recent forum, in response to an audience question. Former lieutenant governor Jane Norton has been running a campaign ad decrying third-party spending on behalf of Buck’s campaign and urging Buck to “be man enough” to run the ads himself.

“She has questioned my manhood; I think it’s fair to respond,” Buck continues in the video. “I have cowboy boots on. They have real bull— on ’em. That’s Weld County bull—, not Washington D.C. bull—.”

Full WaPo story here. Sounds like both candidates have made gender an issue where it need not be.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Politics | Comments Off

CFP: Aging as a Feminist Concern, Jan. 21-22, 2011 Emory University School of Law

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

From colleagues Naomi Cahn, Nina Kohn and Martha Fineman, this call for papers:

Call for Papers: Aging as a Feminist Concern

January 21-22, 2010, Emory University School of Law

Aging is a feminist issue. The elderly, especially the oldest of the old, are disproportionately female. Among the elderly, women are more likely than their male peers to face a number of challenges, including poverty, disability and isolation. Yet, the legal academy, including feminist legal theorists, is only just beginning to pay attention to old age and its implications. This workshop will advance this agenda by bringing together a diverse group of scholars to explore the relationship between feminist theory, law and policy, and the concerns of the aging. We will focus on understanding how the relationship between age and gender can be theorized, as well as exploring how feminist legal theory can inform policy and law in the U.S. and abroad.

Feminist legal theorists are in an excellent position to advance progressive and transformative theories about aging. The form and content of the negative stereotypes older adults are frequently subjected to parallel negative stereotypes about women. Like women, the elderly (both men and women) have traditionally been cast as mentally inadequate, frail, and in need of protection by outsiders. Both age and gender – and out-dated conceptions of each – have historically been cavalierly used as convenient proxies for other, more germane, characteristics. In addition, older women face many of the same gendered inequalities of younger women in contexts ranging from domestic violence to employment discrimination. Further, the growing population of older women raises distinct issues of caretaking whether the older woman is serving as caretaker or as the care recipient.

SUBMISSIONS PROCEDURE:

Please email a paper proposal of several paragraphs length by October 1, 2010 to: mfineman@law.emory.edu, ncahn@law.gwu.edu, nakohn@law.syr.edu, and cdomozi@emory.edu.

Decisions will be made by October 15, 2010.

PAPER TOPICS:

Potential contributors are encouraged to think creatively about the relationship between aging and gender, and how feminist legal theory can be brought to bear on understanding old-age policies. To this end, possible paper topics include:

What characterizes a feminist approach to aging and how does this differ from other approaches?
How do current discourses and practices of domestic violence, family law, employment/labor law, sexuality, masculinity, and political theory engage or fail to engage with the elder population?
How does the law reinforce or enhance the vulnerability and marginalization of the elderly?
What arguments can be made for and against the proposition that the government must support caretaking and caretakers of the elderly? How do these arguments differ from those made on behalf of the caretakers of children or the disabled?
How should government “protect” older adults, what are the implications of such protection, and how might feminist legal theory inform and guide our understanding of protective policies?
How should family responsibility be structured in old-age policy?
What are the implications of health care reform for older adults aging?

WORKSHOP DETAILS:

The Workshop begins Friday at 4PM in room 575 of Emory Law School, followed by dinner in the Hunter Atrium. The Law School is located at 1301 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA. Presentations and panels continue on Saturday from 10AM to approximately 5PM. Lunch will be provided.

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off

At Your Local Tailor

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

This sign, from a shop on 29th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues in Manhattan:

Via WNYC.org and Leonard Lopate’s "Bad Sign Language" contest (here).

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Bloggenpheffer | Comments Off

In the Library With the Man Your Grades Could Be

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The video was produced by the library at Brigham Young University. Hilarious!

H/T Paul Caron (here).

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Academia, Feminism and Culture | 1 Comment

Upping the Odds: Bristol, Levi and the Hazards of Young Marriage

Posted on July 20, 2010 by June Carbone

The headlines are abuzz, “Bristol Palin and Levi Johnson engaged, again!” Most of us, of course, wish them well, and this time they might make it work. As Naomi Cahn and I explained, however, in Red Families v. Blue Families, we are skeptical that marriage by itself is the answer that magically makes things better. In the modern era, the question of whether they will marry may be less important than whether they will stay married – and what being married does for their preparation for adulthood. So what exactly are Bristol and Levi’s prospects and what can they – and other young couples with less prominent parents – do to make them better?

Let’s start with age. Marrying at 19 improves the odds over marrying at 17. It’s a good bet that Bristol and Levi are more mature – and more realistic about family life — than they were two years ago.

Would they be better off marrying even later? Statistics show that marriages at 21 are more stable than if they begin at 19 – and significantly better than at 17. Older studies indicated that waiting beyond 21 didn’t make much difference, but the most recent studies report a change. Today, those who marry in their late twenties or early thirties are less likely to divorce than those marrying at younger ages.

The important reasons are why. If Bristol believes that marrying Levi means that she can quit work to devote herself to her children, she is in for a big disappointment. Forty years ago, a young man without a college degree could expect to support a family; today, young couples need two incomes. Paul Amato finds that financial stress makes it much more likely that a couple will divorce today than a similar couple facing financial stress a generation ago – and almost all couples in their early twenties face financial hardship unless their parents bankroll the family.

The second issue is whether they share a realistic commitment to the same marital ideals. If Bristol and Levi plan for two careers, or if Levi’s income hits six figures and they agree she should devote herself to the children, they may do quite well. If, as more frequently occurs, marriage makes it more likely that Bristol has a second child shortly after the first and less likely that she finishes college, she may be worse off in the long run. Amato’s studies indicate that while two career couples enjoy high quality marriages, women who would prefer to be at home but find themselves stuck in unsatisfying jobs because of their husband’s lack of income or benefits are heading for divorce.

Finally, the real issue (as the blogs get right) is whether Bristol should be marrying Levi. Economist Stéphane Mechoulan finds that later age of marriage does predict family stability – in large part because the successful become more likely to find each other if they wait. Bristol has apparently told US Weekly that the couple will probably see a marriage counselor, emphasizing that she believes Levi has “a lot of work to do.”

Levi, watch out – and do what Bristol says. Long term studies on marital quality find that the wife’s behavior raises the risk of divorce only rarely and then in the most extreme cases. The much more significant predictor – how well the husband responds to the wife’s criticisms.

And whatever the impact on Bristol, their son Tripp is more likely to have a strong relationship with his father if the two stay together. Not only do married men spend more time and resources on their children, but father and son are more likely to form an emotional bond that may weather a later breakup if they live together as a family during Tripp’s childhood.

The best advice for Bristol and Levi is the same advice they should have followed before Bristol become pregnant – stay in school, prepare for your future, be respectful of each other, and don’t have a child within marriage or without until you are ready to accept the responsibility that goes with it. The timing of the second child may influence their collective futures more than the timing of the nuptials.

-June Carbone

(cross-post from FamilyScholars.org)

Posted in Feminism and Families | Comments Off

When the Tax Man is a Transgender Woman

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The New York Times home page features the video above (source here) about tax non-compliance in Pakistan. The "hook" of the story is the use of transgendered women to collect taxes in a particular area Pakistan. The use of these tax collectors is meant to "embarrass" tax scofflaws into paying their bills. It is an unusual strategy, that’s for sure. Perhaps more interestingly, the short piece implies that tax non-compliance in Pakistan may be linked to the level of foreign aid the country receives. Pakistan receives significant direct support from the U.S. — $1.5 billion dollars by one count.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Sisters In Other Nations, Women and Economics | Comments Off

Feminist Law Prof 1L Stories Revisited

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law Review has published another Law Stories issue, this one with the theme "One L Revisited" (including an introduction by author Scott Turow). In this Summer 2010 issue, several law professors and other law graduates recount exp eriences from their first years of law school. Among the contributors are members of Feminist Law Professors’ own blogroll. Here are a few excerpts (citations omitted):

Pamela Bridgewater, The Infinite Alchemy: A First Year Journey in Three Acts Spanning Three Decades, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 1027 (2010)

What most people do not know is that these years as a law professor have provided insight on my own legal education. In fact, it has continued my legal education in such a way that I often feel like that frightened, slienced young woman facing that elderly man in the seersucker suit, or that fierce young woman facing down her professor with anger and facts, or that insightful, enriched, an d empowered young woman reading, relating to and relying on the written word, narrative and theory to shape my understanding.

Mark R. Poirier, One L in a Different Voice: Becoming a Gay Male Feminist at Harvard Law School, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 1063 (2010)

Actually, Harvard law was not prepared to deal with a fair number of the students in my incoming class in the fall of 1975. The Zeitgeist of the early 1970s led many top law schools to admit more students of color and women, along with some attempts at economic (class) diversity. I suspect the idea was that the racial turmoil of the late 1960s and the emerging claims for social justice articulated by various feminism would be resolved by training a more diverse class of students as lawyers mostly in the traditional mold. There were role models in the civil rights movement and in the emerging constitutional and statutory litigation around sex-gender. As to role models, however, Harvard Law itself had almost no faculty of color and almost no women faculty throughout my stay, let alone any openly gay professors.

Lisa R. Pruitt, How You Gonna ‘Keep Her Down on the Farm, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 2085 (2010)

Shortly before I graduated, I had a conversation with one of the tenured women in which she asked me why I had not sought a mentor from among the women faculty. I recall telling her that I didn’t know — it just hadn’t happened. Further, my path had naturally not crossed with any of theirs because I was not particularly interested in their fields of expertise. If pressed to speculate now, though, I would say I lacked female mentors because none of the women professors reached out to me, and I did not have the courage to reach out to them. I also did not perceive a need for their mentorship, in part because male professors had filled the gap by initiating mentoring relationships with me.

Adrien Katherine Wing, One L Redux, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 1119 (2010)

I told the [Stanford BLSA] students that I was doing this essay. I was delighted that I had time to reflect after thirty years, while I was at my alma mater. When they asked what I thought now about the 1L year, about law school in general, I said, "Despite the pain and agony, I would do it all again. I have learned that the law can have soul. The law can have heart. And I hope that in my teaching, I have shown generations of students that this must be so."

The entire issue is worth reading — very enjoyable and thought-provoking.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Law Schools, Law Teaching | 1 Comment

Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia and The Washington College of Law 2010 Student Legal Essay Writing Competition

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

This call for essays may be of interest to students of Feminist Law Profs and others:

The Modern American (TMA) announces the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) essay competition, open to all full-time and part-time law students enrolled in and attending an accredited law school in the United States.

The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) and WCL share an important history in advancing women in the law and women’s rights. TMA celebrates this history by creating a writing competition that highlights the status and future of women’s bodily freedom in American policy-making and jurisprudence.

Women’s bodily freedom is an issue that has hung in the balance for a number of years. Yet new, controversial laws that criminalize pregnant women’s behavior and girls’ refusal to receive arguably harmful immunizations have put women’s bodily freedom back into the forefront of the public’s attention. What is the status of women’s bodily freedom and what should women’s rights advocates anticipate looking forward?

The winner of the competition will not only receive $1,000, but will also have the opportunity to publish his/her/zer essay in TMA.

PRIZES INCLUDE: $1000 and potential publication in TMA

TOPIC: The status and future of women’s bodily freedom in American policy-making and jurisprudence

DEADLINE: October 1st, 2010, at noon (Eastern Standard Time)

Rules and Regulations below.

1. Any student regularly enrolled in and attending classes full-time or part-time at an accredited law school in the United States is eligible to enter. Submissions must be through email to tma@wcl.american.edu, with one cover page that includes all personal information (name, address, phone number, email, law school, and essay title). Please indicate in the subject of your e-mail that you are submitting a paper for the WBA/WCL Writing Competition.

2. Papers must be the original, unpublished work of an individual student but may have been prepared as a course assignment. Some law school faculty guidance is permitted, but guidance by the competition judges is not permitted.

3. Papers must be typed, 20-30 pages in length, single-spaced, unjustified, Garamond font typeface with one-inch margins. Submissions should contain endnote citations, included in the paper’s length. Endnotes should conform to the 18th edition of A Uniform System of Citation (The Bluebook). Most important, submissions MUST be within the subject matter described in the introduction above.

4. Papers will be evaluated by the following criteria: writing quality and clarity; the level of interest that a broad segment of the legal profession would have for the topic and content; analysis and reasoning; timeliness, originality and creativity; quality and use of research; and compliance with these rules.

5. Papers will be evaluated, and the prize will be awarded, at the discretion of a panel of scholars and attorneys who will have no knowledge of the author’s name or law school.

6. The winner as well as all participants will be notified regarding the competition results by mail on October 21st, 2010.

7. Entries must be received no later than October 1st, 2010 at noon (Eastern Standard Time), at tma@wcl.american.edu.

8. Entry grants TMA the right of first publication of the paper and the copyright if published, constitutes certification of the paper as an original unpublished and unplagiarized work, and is the author’s agreement to hold TMA and its members harmless from, and to indemnify them for, any and all damages and costs relating to copyright infringement or plagiarism.

9. Please notify competition organizers at tma@wcl.american.edu if any of your contact information changes.

Posted in Law Teaching | Comments Off

The Price of Donation

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Earlier this week the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article called "The Wrong Type of Solicitation" about the sexual harrassment of higher education planned-giving personnel.

Sexual harassment can occur in any job, but certain aspects of fund raising make it more likely. For one thing, women now dominate the profession. Three-fourths of the 30,000 members of the Association of Fundraising Professionals are female.

In many cases, those women are appealing to older, powerful men for large donations. To succeed, fund raisers must build long-term relationships with donors. And they often visit donors in their homes or meet them in social settings where alcohol and personal information are plentiful.

Apparently, the Chronicle reporter spoke to over 20 planned-giving professionals and most were reluctant to use their names. Why?

"It is a disempowering experience," says one woman. "I do not want to publicly acknowledge weird experiences in my career. It puts an X on your head. And I do not want people to think I brought it on myself."

The full article is available here (pay site – sorry; day passes available).

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Sexual Harassment | Comments Off

Duncan on Sexting

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Susan Duncan (Louisville) has posted to SSRN her working paper, "A Legal Response is Necessary for Self Produced Child Pornography: A Legislator’s Checklist for Drafting the Bill." Here is the abstract:

This Article explores self produced child pornography, known in the media as “sexting,” and offers a balanced, multi-faceted approach including both a legal response and education. Currently, states are modifying their laws because applying existing child pornography statutes to self produced child pornography results in a punishment which does not fit the crime. The author analyzes and critiques these proposed statutes finding none adequately address the multiple facets of the self produced child pornography problem. The Article concludes by offering a checklist of important provisions legislators should consider and proposed language legislators can incorporate into their bills. Policymakers and scholars will gain an excellent summary of both the problem and the arguments advanced by scholars studying the issue, as well as a template for solving the problem after reading this Article.

The full working paper is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Technology, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off

Northern District of California Permits Defendants to Interrogate Title IX Plaintiff About Whether She Consented to Teacher’s Sexual Behavior When She Was 15

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Colin Miller

A plaintiff claims that she was 15 years-old when she was subjected to sexual molestation by her then 38 year-old teacher at a charter school. Accordingly, she brings a Section 1983 action (1) against the school and its director/principal for failure to train and supervise, and (2) against the teacher for denial of equal protection. She also files a Title IX sex discrimination claim against all three defendants, a state law claim for negligent hiring and supervision against the school, and a state law invasion of privacy claim against the director/principal, who allegedly made a public announcement to the student body, disclosing details of the sexual conduct between the teacher and the plaintiff. During a deposition of the plaintiff, the parties disagree about the proper scope of questioning. Among other things, defense counsel wants to interrogate the plaintiff about whether she "consented" to the sexual encounters with her teacher and whether the teacher’s sexual behavior was "unwelcome" by her. The parties thereafter make their arguments to the court on the issue. How should the court rule? In its recent opinion in Doe v. Willits Unified School Dist., 2010 WL 2524587 (N.D. Cal. 2010), the United States District Court for the Northern District of California permitted such questioning. I strongly disagree.

Initially, the court noted that the Advisory Committee’s Note to the federal rape shield rule, Federal Rule of Evidence 412, indicates that

Courts should presumptively issue protective orders barring discovery unless the party seeking discovery makes a showing that the evidence sought to be discovered would be relevant under the facts and theories of the particular case, and cannot be obtained except through discovery.

The court thus had to decide whether the plaintiff’s "consent" to the teacher’s sexual behavior was part of an element or defense in the case, and ostensibly found that it could only be an element in connection with the plaintiff’s Title IX claim. The court then noted on the one hand "that the question has not yet been addressed in th[e Ninth C]ircuit." On the other hand, it found that each of the cases outside of the Ninth Circuit which had specifically considered whether consent is an element of a Title IX case had "held that consent is not part of the cause of action." Particularly persuasive for me was the opinion in Mary M. v. North Lawrence Community Sch. Corp., 131 F.3d 1220 (7th Cir. 1997), in which the Seventh Circuit held that if "children cannot be said to consent to sex in a criminal context, they similarly cannot be said to welcome it in a civil context. To find otherwise would be incongruous."

But rather than join all other courts and preclude the subject interrogation, the Northern District of California found that

because the law in this circuit is unsettled, and because this Court does not wish to prematurely define the elements of the causes of action in this case (a question more properly addressed by the trial judge), this Court will allow limited questions on the issue of whether plaintiff welcomed or consented to her sexual encounters with [the teacher]. Defendants therefore generally may ask plaintiff whether she wanted to engage in sexual conduct with [the teacher], and/or whether she initiated the sexual relationship.

Really? Rather than step on the toes of the trial judge or the Ninth Circuit, the court decided to allow interrogation of a child as to whether she "consented" to sexual relations with her 38 year-old teacher when she was 15? How exactly does such a conclusion cohere with the Advisory Committee’s declaration that courts should presumptively issue protective orders and the categorical chorus of precedent precluding such interrogation? In seemingly trying to protect its opinion from appellate review, the court removed protection from the plaintiff.

-Colin Miller

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Courts and the Judiciary | Comments Off

Prison Parenting in Texas

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Jennifer Laurin

From time to time there are glimmers of hope in the often bleak landscape of Texas criminal justice policy. Rarely do those glimmers also resonate positively – much less progressively – with the welfare of women and children. But this story from the Houston Chronicle features a new program that scores on both fronts. It features a program called the Texas Baby and Mother Bonding Initiative (I’ll forgive the choke-me acronym, “BAMBI”), a legislatively mandated program that permits prisoners who give birth in Texas’s state jails the opportunity to continue to parent their children, with supervision and parenting education, rather than surrender them to the foster care system. The story alludes to a number of limitations on the program that are concerning, and which I have not yet investigated: eligibility (only “select” prisoners may participate, certain offenses are disqualifying, and at least one online source – the Texas Department of Criminal Justice itself – indicates here that as of April of this year only three mothers had been placed in the program – ); issues concerning support for the child during the “brief” periods when the mothers apparently are not permitted contact; what sort of post-program follow-up exists to maintain the program’s gains when the mothers and their children return to their pre-jail environments and relationships. But certainly in theory, the program appears to be on the right track. And, it puts Texas (don’t laugh) at the forefront of reform in the arena of the effects of imprisonment on mothers, children, and families: Only a handful of states operate prison nurseries or other programs that afford incarcerated mothers the opportunity to parent. With some (though to my knowledge limited) data seeming to show a correlation between these sorts of parenting-facilitation programs (e.g. nurseries, in-prison bonding time) and reduced recidivism rates, one wonders what’s holding back the rest of the country. Hmmm.

-Jennifer Laurin

Posted in Prisons and Prisoners | Comments Off

NYSBA Announcement on US News Decision to “Rate” (Not Rank) Law Firms

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

New York State Bar Association President Stephen P. Younger (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP) sent this message today to the group’s members:

As many of you know, U.S. News and World Report announced earlier this year that, working with Best Lawyers, it was going to publish this fall a ranking of law firms, both on a national and local level. The New York State Bar Association believed that this had the potential to be harmful to many lawyers and law firms, and questioned whether it was possible to conclude that any lawyer or firm was better than another. In February, we brought this matter to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates and submitted a resolution calling for a study by the ABA, looking into the question of "whether a statistically significant sampling will be used to support fine distinctions between the ability of one law firm in a particular community when compared to another." After a vigorous debate, a resolution supporting a study was adopted, and the ABA has begun that effort. This resolution received significant publicity, both in newspapers and journals of general circulation and in legal publications.

On June 25, U.S. News announced that it would not rank law firms. Instead, it would rate firms, which should avoid some of our most significant concerns. Its announcement said: "Because firms were often separated by small or insignificant differences in the overall score, the Best Law Firms rankings will be published alphabetically within tiers rather than as a numerical ranking." This is the exact argument we made when we presented our resolution to the ABA.

Placing firms in tiers lessens somewhat the vast oversimplification inherent in representing that the quality of law firms can be measured in a rank, numerical order. Furthermore, using tiers rather than numerical ranking lessens the unfairness and inaccuracy of representing that a law firm is number one in a metropolitan area when, in fact, in all likelihood there are several firms of equal quality.

This is a very positive development. The State Bar Association will continue to follow this matter to best assure that the concept of the ranking of law firms does not become a reality.

It strikes me that if the ABA really wanted to help improve legal education, it would do everything in its power to pressure US News to end its flawed law school rankings (soundly criticized by Brian Leiter, for example, here). Many of the same problems that Mr. Younger identifies with law firm rankings apply to law schools, too. "Small or insignificant differences in the overall score," "vast oversimplification," "unfairness and inaccuracy"? That sounds familiar.

Why might bar associations be complacent about law school rankings but mobilized in opposing law firm rankings? Here are three possible explanations.

First, bar associations are made up of practicing lawyers, for the most part. Practicing lawyers are the ones who will "win" or "lose" financially if US News ranks law firms. For ego purposes, a practicing lawyer may be pleased if his or her alma mater receives a high law school ranking, or dismayed if it doesn’t, but for lawyers who have already been practicing for several years, fluctuations in law schools don’t impact their wallets in an immediate, measurable way. Plus, most law schools are not profit-seeking institutions, so law school rankings may be perceived to do less financial "harm" to any one identifiable person’s livelihood.

Second, practicing lawyers in leadership positions of bar associations likely went to law school before the US News rankings era, so they don’t understand how much the rankings have influenced legal education for the worse.

Third, practicing lawyers — regardless of experience level — already know where their law schools rank in the pecking order. For those lawyers to whom those sorts of things are important, they have had time to integrate the ranking information into their professional and personal gestalt. But ranking law firms is a scary unknown. It might be that the pecking order — as determined by US News — wouldn’t square with lawyers’ view of themselves, their practices or their advertising. When I worked at a large law firm, one of the supervising partners told me that the American Lawyer‘s publication of profits-per-partner did more to change the legal profession in the last 25 years than any other factor. The change was not salutary, in this partner’s view; it led to more cold-blooded business decisions in law firms and greater dissatisfaction among lawyers. Ranking law firms likely would have a similar impact.

If the ABA, NYSBA and other bar associations wanted to pressure US News to end its ranking of law schools, they could. In my opinion, members of those associations don’t have enough of a financial or personal stake in law school rankings to spur them to act for the common benefit of the legal profession.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Law Schools, Legal Profession | 3 Comments

Strawberry Shortcake Gets a Makeover at 30

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

It looks like Rainbow Brite is not the only toy getting a makeover. Strawberry Shortcake has a new look, too.

Today’s New York Times reports (here) that the new Strawberry Shortcake will be introduced by Hasbro at this year’s Comic-Con (huh?). Writer Brooks Barnes sums it up with, "[G]oodbye, poofy grandma bonnet; hello, yarn hipster hat."

I do like the fact that she gets phalanges instead of mitten-hands, but the Raggedy Ann look worked just fine, IMHO. Pink hair, not red hair. Ho-hum.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Culture | Comments Off

Naomi Schoenbaum on Elena Kagan’s “Post-Identity” Approach to Gender

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Naomi Schoenbaum, a Bigelow Fellow at The University of Chicago Law School, has published "Post-Gender Justice: What Does Being a Woman Mean to Elena Kagan?" in The New Republic. Here is an excerpt:

Kagan has been deemed a female pioneer: the first woman to lead Harvard Law School and to serve as solicitor general. Yet, despite this impressive list of firsts, Kagan (who was dean of Harvard Law School when I was a second- and third-year student there) has not taken up the helm as a leader on women’s issues, or explicitly identified herself as a woman leader in the law. This has something to do with her age. The first generation of women lawyers to make it to the highest echelons of the American legal profession—who faced enormous barriers in the profession simply because they were women—had no choice but to take on gender as a defining feature of their legal education and career. * * *

[Kagan] has given no indication that she considers her gender to be a factor in her legal thinking. In her opening statement two weeks ago, she paid tribute to O’Connor and Ginsburg, and recognized that she herself wouldn’t be where she was without them. But her broader career, including her rise in academia and her tenure in the White House, has been marked by no particular interest in women’s issues. The most relevant of her few academic writings on gender-related topics—an article on the constitutionality of pornography and a student note about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which revolutionized sex discrimination law—focused on doctrinal or procedural issues, rather than substantive questions related to gender equality. * * *

After reaching milestones in academia and the Obama administration, Kagan has been invited to speak on issues related to women in the legal profession, but, on these occasions, she has concentrated on the data and avoided statements about sex discrimination. In discussing gender disparities in the law, she has focused on women’s choices, such as how women opt to “move around in different areas” rather than aim for “the pinnacle,” and how “many of the issues that women face in the workplace are issues for men as well.” What’s more, when Kagan has spoken on women’s issues, in contrast to O’Connor, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor, she has steered clear of discussing the way gender affected her legal career. * * *

Like President Obama, the man who nominated her, she has portrayed herself as a figure beyond identity politics.

Schoenbaum’s full article is here. It’s worth a read.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Firsts | 1 Comment

DOMA Section Three Held Unconstitutional

Posted on July 8, 2010 by rrobson

In two companion cases – – – one filed by individual plaintiffs married in Massachusetts alleging a violation of equal protection and one filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts alleging Spending Clause and Tenth Amendment issues – – – federal district judge Joseph Tauro has held DOMA Section 3 unconstitutional. Section 3 is the provision limiting federal recognition of marriages to those between a man and woman, regardless of state law.

Judge Tauro has much to say about the federalism and the federal – as opposed to state – interest in marriage and family law, although what he basically says is that the federal government shouldn’t have any interest at all. Family law is a province of the states. He also rejects the Obama administration’s newly-minted justification for DOMA: a preservation of the status quo. Applying rational basis under equal protection, Judge Tauro finds ‘staus quo’ not rationally related to the statutory means, especially given the law in 1996 when DOMA was passed.

More on the cases, and the case opinions, available on ConLawProfBlog here.

Will the Obama DOJ appeal???????

– Ruthann Robson

Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law, LGBT Rights | Comments Off

Kimberly Brooks Named Dean at Dalhousie Law

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Professor Kimberly Brooks (McGill) has been named Dean of the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Here is the announcement from the press release (not yet posted on the Dalhousie website):

Professor Brooks graduated with a BA from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Laws from UBC and a Master of Laws (Taxation) from York University, Osgoode Hall Law School. Between UBC and York she worked for the firm Stikeman Elliott as a tax lawyer. Presently she holds the H. Heward Stikeman Chair in the Law of Taxation in the Faculty of Law at McGill University, having previously held appointments in the Faculties of Law at UBC and Queens, respectively. …

Professor Brooks has significant experience with curriculum reform, strategic planning and advancement. She shows inexhaustible energy and passion for the law, for students and for law schools. She has a broad understanding of the changing contexts of legal education and law schools, and is deeply committed to seizing the opportunity before the Schulich School of Law to take the lead in curriculum reform, to increase its scholarly impact, to cultivate the professional legal community and to encourage students to work in the public interest.

Congratulations, Kim!

H/T Tax Prof Blog

Posted in Chutes and Ladders | 1 Comment

Golf and Fatherhood Conflict in the PGA

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Would the New York Times ever run the headline, "Golf and Fatherhood Conflict in the PGA"? I doubt it. But "Golf and Motherhood Conflict in the LPGA"? That merited a squib on the front page of the "B" section in today’s paper (article here).

Posted in Feminism and Sports | Comments Off

Declaration of Independence Thoughts: Kagan Hearing and (White Male) Philosophers

Posted on July 4, 2010 by rrobson

Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the foundational text for the July Fourth "Independence Day" national holiday in the United States. Among the discussions of the document this year, two stand out.

First, there is the colloquy between Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on Day Two of the Kagan Confirmation hearings, in which Grassley invokes the Declaration of Independence to raise the issue of Kagan’s views on the Second Amendment and the Court’s interpretation in Heller and McDonald:

GRASSLEY: Well, it’s basic to our Declaration of Independence that says we’re endowed by our creator with certain — certain individual rights, among them, you know, what it says, and we aren’t endowed by our government. So the question here is, are we endowed by our Constitution with this right or did it exist before the Constitution existed?
KAGAN: Well, Senator Grassley, I do think that my responsibility would be to apply the Constitution as understood and previously applied by the court, and that means as understood and — and interpreted by the court in Heller, and that’s what I would do. So I think that the — the fundamental legal question would be whether — that a case would present would be whether the Constitution guarantees an individual right to bear arms, and Heller held that it did, and that’s good precedent going forward.
GRASSLEY: I know the Declaration of Independence is not the law of the land, but it does express a philosophy of why we went to war and why our country exists. And you understand, I hope, that if we’re endowed by our government with certain rights, the government can take them away from us, whereas if we possess them ourselves and give them up from time to time to the government to exercise in our stead, then the government can’t take away something that’s inherently ours.
Do you believe that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is a fundamental right?
KAGAN: Senator Grassley, I think that that’s what the court held in McDonald.
GRASSLEY: And you agree with it?
KAGAN: Good precedent going forward.

The post continues here at Constitutional Law Prof Blog.

-Ruthann Robson

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminist Legal History | 1 Comment

Frances Criminalizes “Psychologial Violence”

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

France has passed a criminal ban on psychological or verbal abuse of a spouse or live-in partner. The New York Times reported:

The French Parliament gave final and unanimous approval on Tuesday to a law that makes “psychological violence” a criminal offense as part of a law intended to help victims of physical violence and abuse, especially in the home.

The law is thought to be too vague by some judges and the police, and whether they choose to investigate and prosecute such offenses will define the success of the new legislation.

Nadine Morano, the secretary of state for the family * * * said the primary abuse help line for French women got 90,000 calls a year, with 84 percent concerning psychological violence. * * *

Those found guilty face up to three years in jail and a fine of 75,000 euros, or about $90,000. The law is meant to apply to both sexes, but the drafters were particularly concerned about the abuse of women. The two legislators say a woman dies every 2.2 days in France because of domestic violence, which understood broadly affects 10 percent of women ages 18 to 60. Ms. Bousquet said that in couples, 90 percent of the victims were women.

The law defines mental violence as “repeated acts that could be constituted by words,” including insults or repeated text messages that “degrade one’s quality of life and cause a change to one’s mental or physical state.”

The law also authorizes a three-year experiment with electronic ankle bracelets to keep an abuser away from a victim.

The New York Times article is here.

Leslie Yalof Garfield (Pace) previously blogged (here) about the French law. She has a podcast here (running time approximately 12 minutes) describing the potential applicability of a French-style anti-verbal abuse law in the U.S. context.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Acts of Violence, Sisters In Other Nations | Comments Off

A Pill to Make Your Daughter Interested in Dolls and Boys?

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Earlier this month, Time Magazine reported (here) on the off-label use of the steroid dexamethasone to treat prevent fetal development of ambiguous genitalia:

The early prenatal use of dexamethasone, or dex, has been shown to prevent some of the symptoms of [congenital adrenal hyperplasia, known as] CAH in girls, namely ambiguous genitalia. Because the condition causes overproduction of male hormones in the womb, girls who are affected tend to have genitals that look more male than female, though internal sex organs are normal. (In boys, in contrast, the condition leads to early signs of puberty, such as deep voice, body hair and enlarged penis by age 2 or 3.) But while the prenatal treatment may address girls’ physical symptoms, it does not prevent the underlying, medical condition, which in some severe cases can be life-threatening, nor does it preclude the need for medication throughout life. * * *

Research has also suggested that affected women who were treated with dex in the womb show more typical gender behavior than other women with CAH; the latter group tends to behave more tomboyishly and express little interest in having children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other professional groups object to the use of dexamethasone because the pregnant women receiving the drug are not part of supervised clinical trials. Predictably, ethicists raise concerns about informed consent — were the pregnant women told that the dexamethasone was prescribed "off-label"?

Over at the Hastings Center’s Bioethics Forum, commentators are drawing attention to a claim by pediatric endocrinologists that administration of dexamethasone in utero "will reduce the well-documented behavioral masculinization," including stereotypically "male" "childhood play, peer association, career and leisure time preferences in adolescence and adulthood, maternalism, aggression, and sexual orientation." (The paper, by pediatric endocrinologists Saroj Kimkarn and Maria New, appeared here in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.)

The Hastings Center commentators say, "[W]e do not think it reasonable or just to use medicine to try to prevent homosexual and bisexual orientations. Nor do we think it reasonable to use medicine to prevent uppity women, like the sort who might raise just these kinds of alarms."

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Medicine, Feminism and Science | 1 Comment

Demonstrably Durable: Indiana Case Reveals Indiana Courts Still Recognize Demonstrably False Accusation Exception To Rape Shield Rule

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Colin Miller

"Under common law, evidence of prior false allegations of sexual misconduct is admissible if the allegation was demonstrably false and similar to that with which the defendant was charged, or if the complaining witness has admitted that the prior accusation was false." Jack Kenney, Prior False Allegations of Sexual Misconduct, Other Holdings 41-JUN Res Gestae 30, 30 (1998).

The recent opinion of the Court of Appeals of Indiana in Wells v. State, 2010 WL 2396283 (Ind.App. 2010), reveals that Indiana courts still recognize this common law rule as an exception to Indiana’s rape shield rule and the unlikelihood that defendants will be able to use it to their advantage.

In Wells, Jason Wells was convicted of Child Molesting based upon acts that he allegedly committed against A.W., his then 13 year-old daughter. At trial, the court prevented Wells from presenting evidence that A.W. had made somewhat similar allegations to her brother and a friend against another individual around the same time she reported sexual abuse by her father. Unlike the allegations against Wells, A.W. did not make these allegations to police, and no charges were ever brought against this other individual.

After he was convicted, Wells appealed, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court erred by precluding him from presenting this evidence. The Court of Appeals of Indiana noted that there are only four codified exceptions to the proscription in Indiana’s rape shield rule — Indiana Rule of Evidence 412 — on the admission of evidence of past sexual conduct by a witness or the alleged victim: The rule allows for the admission of

(1) evidence of the victim’s or of a witness’s past sexual conduct with the defendant;

(2) evidence which shows that some person other than the defendant committed the act upon which the prosecution is founded;

(3) evidence that the victim’s pregnancy at the time of trial was not caused by the defendant; or

(4) evidence of conviction for a crime to impeach under Rule 609.

The court went on to note, however, that

There is also a common law exception to this rule when a defendant seeks to introduce evidence of a prior false accusation of rape….Thus, evidence of prior false accusations may be admitted, but only if (1) the complaining witness admits he or she made a prior false accusation of rape; or (2) the accusation is demonstrably false….Prior accusations are demonstrably false where the victim has admitted the falsity of the charges or they have been disproved.

But the court then found that Wells failed to satisfy either of these tests because "A.W. ha[d] not admitted that her accusation [wa]s false and there [wa]s no other evidence in the record tending to establish that the accusation was demonstrably false." Moreover, the court found that "Indiana’s Rape Shield Statute has repeatedly been found constitutional on its face so long as it does not violate a defendant’s right to cross-examination" and that "Wells was able to cross-examine A.W. and all other witnesses about the alleged molestation and A.W.’s general character, and it was Wells’s failure to present relevant evidence establishing the falsity of her prior rape allegations that led to the exclusion of the proffered evidence."

-Colin Miller

Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Courts and the Judiciary | Comments Off

CFP: Maryland Law J. of Race, Gender & Class

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

From the FLP mailbox, this call for papers issued by the student editors at the University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class:

The University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class is accepting paper submissions for their [sic] fall issue. All academics, judges and practitioners are invited to submit papers relating to the topics of race, religion, gender and class. The Journal considers traditional law review articles, as well as clinical case studies, client narratives, and other forms of nontraditional scholarship.

The Journal is dedicated to fostering intellectual discourse on issues at the intersection of public policy and the law, as well as analyzing the effects of law, policy and judicial decisions on different religious, racial, ethnic, economic and social groups.

The Journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and originality of all submissions. All points of view and perspectives are welcome as the Journal is not committed to any particular ideology. The editorial staff of the Journal looks forward to working with authors and preserving their voice.

Please submit any article drafts by July 16, 2010.

For more information and to submit papers, please contact Erin Doran, Manuscripts Editor, at rrgc@law.umaryland.edu.

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off

Wide-Open Calls for Participation in 2011 AALS Mid-Year Meeting of Section on Women in Legal Education

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The AALS is planning a Mid-Year Meeting of the Section on Women in Legal Education. The meeting will be held in June 2011 in Washington, D.C. and the theme is, "Women Rethinking Equality." The Planning Committee has issued three very broad calls for participation. (Finally, an AALS meeting that doesn’t have closed clubby doors before the first conference announcement goes out! I’m proud to be a member of an inclusive Section on Women in Legal Education….)

2011 AALS Mid-Year Meeting of Section on Women in Legal Education – Women Rethinking Equality

We are seeking proposals for presentations, papers and posters for the 2011 Mid-Year Meeting Workshop on . The Workshop will be held in June, 2011 in Washington, DC. It will appeal to a full range of teachers and scholars in all subject areas by creating opportunities for a rich dialogue about the meaning, contours, implications, and status of equality for women, with particular attention to women and gender in the setting of legal education. Conference sessions will focus on substantive law and scholarship, teaching concerns, and professional development issues. We welcome participation by all AALS members—and particularly all women—regardless of whether their scholarship focuses on gender.

While the workshop will feature several plenary panels about a range of issues implicated by the topic of gender equality, we also plan to include posters and two types of concurrent sessions. The first type of concurrent session will feature presentations related to one of nine equality-related themes, and the second will provide an opportunity for scholars to receive detailed feedback on works-in-progress.

Call for Presentations on Specific Workshop Themes

The first type of concurrent session will feature presentations on each of the following equality-related themes:

• Gender and International Human Rights
• From Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Justice
• Gender and Economic Inequality
• Gender and Criminal Law
• Gender and Corporate, Securities, Tax, Bankruptcy and Commercial Law
• Gender and the Justice System
• Theorizing Gender
• Gender and Family Law
• Gender and Employment

We expect to select three or four presentations for each of these topical sessions. Each presentation will be about 15 minutes, followed by questions from the moderator and the audience.

Interested faculty should submit a brief written description (no more than 1000 words) of the proposed presentation, along with her or his résumé. The proposal should indicate clearly in which of the nine categories the author believes the presentation belongs. Please email these materials to 11wwcfp@aals.org by July 31, 2010. We will notify selected speakers by October 1, 2010.

Call for Papers

Women write in all fields of law, yet women at all stages of their careers who write in male-dominated fields may have fewer opportunities to present and receive feedback on their work. The same is true of junior women scholars across all academic specialties. Additionally, female and male scholars in gender and feminist jurisprudence often find their work marginalized within traditional academic disciplines and institutions. This call for papers invites scholars from these categories to present their works-in-progress and to receive comments in small group sessions with assigned commentators. Because the goal is to give these scholars more exposure, no subject matter preferences govern this call. Full drafts or nearly completed drafts are encouraged, although these drafts may be rough.

Interested faculty should submit a précis of the paper she or he would like to present, along with her or his résumé. The précis should be no more than 2500 words. Please e-mail these materials to 11wwcfp@aals.org by July 31, 2010. We will notify selected authors by October 1, 2010.

Call for Posters

Finally, the Planning Committee seeks poster presentations. Posters are intended to provide authors an opportunity to present in clear and succinct fashion the thesis and conclusion of their research or to describe teaching innovations. We invite submissions in the following veins: (a) submissions by women scholars regarding current projects on any topic or recently completed projects (including, for example, book projects published within the past two years) and (b) submissions by all scholars, regardless of gender, focusing on current or very recent projects regarding issues of gender or sex. Fliers or other advertising may not be displayed with posters. Also, posters that primarily promote a particular school’s project or program are not eligible for display. Scholars whose posters are selected for presentation must attend the poster presentation session at this 2011 Mid-Year Meeting.

Interested faculty should submit an abstract for the proposed poster, along with her or his résumé, to 11wwcfp@aals.org by December 15, 2010. We will notify those selected to present posters by January 31, 2011.

Eligibility

Faculty members and professional staff of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit proposals for either of the presentation opportunities or for posters. Foreign, visiting and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible.

Those selected for paper, presentation, or poster opportunity must register for the Workshop and pay the registration fee. Each is also responsible for his or her own travel and other expenses.

Please direct questions to Professor Kathryn Abrams, University of California, Berkeley Law at krabrams@ucberkeley.edu; Professor Serena Mayeri, University of Pennsylvania Law School at smayeri@law.upenn.edu; Professor Elizabeth Nowicki, Tulane University Law School at enowicki@tulane.edu; Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig, University of Iowa College of Law at angela-onwuachi@uiowa.edu; Professor Lisa R. Pruitt, University of California, Davis, School of Law at lrpruitt@ucdavis.edu; or Professor Stephanie M. Wildman, Santa Clara University School of Law at swildman@scu.edu.

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off

Ringhand on Supreme Court Nomination Process

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Today’s New York Times has a long article (here) discussing the empirical work of Feminist Law Professor Lori Ringhand (University of Georgia) and her co-author Paul M. Collins, Jr. (Political Science, U. of N. Texas). Here’s how the Times summarizes:

[A] new study, based on an analysis of every question asked and every answer given at Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the last 70 years, shows that the hearings often address real substance, illuminate the spirit of their times and change with shifts in partisan alignments and the demographic characteristics of nominees.

The study also refutes the common mistaken belief that questions about abortion rights have played a dominant role in confirmation hearings since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. And it finds that female and minority nominees are questioned more closely than white male ones.

In the article, Professor Ringhand says that the confirmation hearing for a nominated Supreme Court justice, "really is the way that people, through their elected representatives, are claiming ownership of constitutional meeting."

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off

Overview of Lisa Pruitt’s Recent Work on Geography, Poverty and Equality

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Professor Lisa R. Pruitt (UC Davis) has published two articles that study poverty and its consequences in relation to place. In particular, she brings together the socio-geographic concept of spatial inequality (adding "where?" to the core sociological inquiry "who gets what?") with constitutional conceptions of (in)equality. Pruitt shows that heavy reliance on local tax revenue to finance public services, including constitutionally mandated ones such as indigent defense, leave residents of counties with high poverty rates poorly served by the State. Nonmetropolitan counties, which are relatively undeveloped by definition, face particular service delivery challenges due not only to their typically inferior tax bases, but also because of their spatially dispersed populations and inability to achieve economies of scale.

Here is the author’s description of the articles:

The first article, Justice Deserts: Spatial Inequality and Local Funding of Indigent Defense, was written for the Arizona Law Review’s symposium on "Funding Justice." This article, co-authored with Beth Colgan of Columbia Legal Services in Seattle, analyzes variations in the funding and provision of indigent defense services in light of the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel and the Equal Protection clause. The article compares and contrasts funding and delivery of this service in five Arizona counties, from metropolitan behemoth Maricopa to the state’s most rural jurisdictions.

The second article, Spatial Inequality as Constitutional infirmity: Equal Protection, Child Poverty and Place, considers dramatic county-to-county variations in the provision of health and human services in light of the Montana Constitution’s dignity and equal protection clauses. It was published in the Montana Law Review’s symposium on "Rural Law," and it focuses on children as a particularly vulnerable and immobile population who, like indigent defendants, have no choice about where they receive services.

Both articles are empirical in that they examine fiscal and service provision data from specific counties in particular states to illustrate the gross disparities in service provision among counties and to show how county boundaries become arbitrary lines that dictate the type and sophistication of public services delivered. When States do not re-distribute tax revenue, the fiscal capacity of a local government is limited by its residents’ per capita income, and Pruitt illustrates this dramatically in the contexts of both Montana and Arizona, which are both unevenly developed to varying degrees. Counties with affluent residents and significant property tax bases have large public coffers, while counties with poor residents and poor tax bases deliver inferior services to their residents. Thus, the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.

Pruitt’s work seeks to revive legal consideration of spatial variations in provision of government services, a concern that waned following the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in San Antonio Independent Schools v. Rodriguez. Her new angles on this issue are considering spatial inequality with respect to a right enumerated in the U.S. Constitution (the Sixth Amendment right to counsel) and relying not the federal constitution but on a state constitution to protect the interests of the poor.

Pruitt adds to an analysis of "inequality" a level of nuance that is otherwise lacking in traditional approaches. I recommend both of these articles!

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Economics, Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Environment, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off

Kansas Dean Search

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The University of Kansas is conducting a search for a new Dean of the Law School. Details here. The former Dean, Gail Agrawal is the incoming Dean at Iowa.

Posted in Law Schools | Comments Off

Camille Nelson Named Dean at Suffolk Law

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Professor Camille Nelson (Hofstra) has been named Dean at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Suffolk’s press release is here.

Posted in Chutes and Ladders, Law Schools | Comments Off

Joslin on “Travel Insurance: Protecting Lesbian and Gay Parent Families Across State Lines”

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Courtney Joslin (UC Davis) has posted to SSRN her article, Travel Insurance: Protecting Lesbian and Gay Parent Families Across State Lines, 41 Harv. L. & Pol’y Rev. 31 (2010). Here is the abstract:

Until recently, when a lesbian couple had a child through artificial insemination, only one member of the couple was considered the legal parent of the resulting child at the moment of birth. Today, in a small but growing number of states, this is no longer the case. Instead, in this small group of states, from the moment of birth, both members of the couple are treated as legal parents of a child born to the couple through artificial insemination. While this advancement in state law is tremendously important for many children, the resulting protections are extremely tenuous. These children are assured protection only so long as they and their families remain in one place, never crossing state lines. This essay explores why this legal vulnerability exists and offers a proposal for mitigating this potentially harmful state of affairs.

The full piece is available here.

Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off

Who is the Hiring Chair this Year?

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Dan Markel at Prawfsblawg asks (here) for information on Appointments Committee Chairs at schools that are hiring. If you are on Appointments, or know who is, please share here.

Posted in Academia | Comments Off

Summary of Bluebook Changes from 18th to 19th Edition

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Cynthia Pittson, Head of Reference Services and Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School, has prepared a useful reference list (here) of the change, tweaks and modifications to the citation rules contained in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, now in its 19th edition.

Posted in Academia | Comments Off

Female genital cutting . . . in a U.S. hospital?

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Kaimipono D. Wenger

(Trigger warning)

This post at Feministing — about a doctor who cuts young children with “abnormal” clitorises, and then tests their subsequent sensory perception with a vibrator (!) — is just incredibly disturbing.

Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Families, Feminism and Medicine, LGBT Rights | Comments Off

NYT on Parental Leave in Sweden

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Kaimipono D. Wenger

A fascinating discussion from the NYT a few weeks ago underscores the fact that no, current United States gender norms are not a particularly normal or natural baseline, and that other, healthier options are available. As the article notes, Sweden’s laws on parental leave have helped foster an increase in male parenting and a variety of related changes:

Companies have come to expect employees to take leave irrespective of gender, and not to penalize fathers at promotion time. Women’s paychecks are benefiting and the shift in fathers’ roles is perceived as playing a part in lower divorce rates and increasing joint custody of children. In perhaps the most striking example of social engineering, a new definition of masculinity is emerging. “Many men no longer want to be identified just by their jobs,” said Bengt Westerberg, who long opposed quotas but as deputy prime minister phased in a first month of paternity leave in 1995. “Many women now expect their husbands to take at least some time off with the children.”

Most striking is the article’s focus on the benefits for men that come from this shift. The article’s rah-rah, "let’s help men out through gender equality" tone is grating in places. But the underlying point stands, I think — rigid hierarchical gender roles harm both men and women.

Posted in Feminism and Families | Comments Off

CFP: LatCrit-SALT Junior Faculty Development Workshop

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

This announcement from LatCrit, Inc.:

LatCrit, Inc. (LatCrit) and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)
are pleased to invite you to the Eighth Annual Junior Faculty
Development Workshop (FDW), immediately preceding the LatCrit XV
program. This annual workshop is designed for critical, progressive, and
social justice oriented pre-tenure professors, including clinicians and legal
writing professors, as well as those who may be contemplating a teaching
career. However, we encourage more senior members of the profession to
attend, share their experience, and serve as resources and mentors.
The FDW is designed to familiarize critical, progressive, and social justice
oriented junior faculty with LatCrit and SALT principles and values and
support them in the scholarship, teaching, and service aspects of
professional success. In addition, the FDW seeks to foster scholarship in
progressive, social justice, and critical outsider jurisprudence, including
LatCrit theory, among new and junior faculty, students, and practitioners.
Finally, the FDW aims to cultivate a community of scholars interested in
the continuation of this and similar projects over the years. Please inform
your progressive and critical colleagues who are interested in making
social justice central to their teaching, scholarship, and activism about this
event.

To facilitate community building through shared experiences and the
exchange of ideas, we hope that all participants will attend the entire
workshop.

For more information about the FDW, please see here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off

“Renaissance Male” Teleconference June 29, 2010: “Rage, Race and Redemption”

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

This announcement, courtesy of Jewel Woods, Executive Director of the Renaissance Male Project Inc., “a midwest multi-cultural & multi-issue progressive men’s organization”:

JUNE BROWN BAG AUDIO TELECONFERENCE

Next Tuesday, June 29th

Rage, Race & Redemption: Engaging The Emotional Lives Of Men Of Color

Victor Lewis is an internationally recognized leader in the field of anti-oppression diversity work and alliance building. As an educator, trainer and activist, Lewis has conducted keynote speeches, seminars, workshops and “train the trainer” programs throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is best known for his inspiring and catalytic leadership role in the award-winning race relations documentary, “The Color of Fear.” Lewis is co-author, with Hugh Vasquez, of Lessons from “The Color of Fear,” a four volume curriculum to be used in conjunction with the film. This is an indispensable resource for educators, diversity trainers and facilitators. Lewis also conducts trainings using the curriculum. He is also a contributor to the anthology, Crash Course: Reflections on the Film “Crash” for Critical Dialogues about Race, Power and Privilege. Lewis is currently Director of the Center for Diversity Leadership and Coordinator of Curriculum Development for Speak Out. He was previously a senior trainer with the Oakland Men’s Project, a leader amongst pro-feminist men’s organizations, and one of the nation’s premier violence-prevention training institutes. Lewis also has written and lectured extensively on the roots of male violence when he served as co-chair of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS).

He is also a contributor to the anthology, Crash Course: Reflections
on the Film “Crash” for Critical Dialogues about Race, Power and
Privilege.

Lewis is currently Director of the Center for Diversity Leadership and
Coordinator of Curriculum Development for Speak Out. He was previously
a senior trainer with the Oakland Men’s Project, a leader amongst
pro-feminist men’s organizations, and one of the nation’s premier
violence-prevention training institutes. Lewis also has written and
lectured extensively on the roots of male violence when he served as
co-chair of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS).

Monthly Brown Bag Discussions sponsored by the Renaissance Male
Project bring together a wide array of educators, clinicians,
intellectuals, artists and authors to discuss their work and topics
that are important to men and boys in the U.S. and worldwide.

TIME: CALL-IN (12:00-1:00PM Eastern)

The telconference is free, but participants must register in advance. Registration via the web is here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Masculinity, Race and Racism, Upcoming Lectures | Comments Off

Soccer Educational Outreach Program to Stop Domestic Violence

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

I’ve watched more ESPN in the last week than I have in the last year. I’ve caught FIFA World Cup fever, along with millions of other sports fans around the world.

I was interested to learn that there is a “Young Leaders Summit” taking place in Johannesburg at the same time as the World Cup. 200 young people are attending this summit, sponsored by Man Up, a global youth campaign to stop violence against women and girls. Here’s how Man Up describes “the issues” (source):

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. It can include physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, and it cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and geography. It takes place in the home, on the streets, in schools, the workplace, in farm fields, refugee camps, during conflicts and crises. It has many manifestations — from the most universally prevalent forms of domestic and sexual violence, to harmful practices, abuse during pregnancy, so-called honour killings and other types of femicide.

The group has enlisted the help of artists and athletes. ESPN would to a great public service if it expanded its coverage to include information on organizations like this one, and players who are involved in the campaign against domestic violence.

Posted in Feminism and Sports | Comments Off

Olson, Freedom’s Daughters: A Juneteenth Story

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Lynne Olson, a former reporter, is the author of Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour (Random House 2010). Browsing my local bookstore today — Juneteenth — it was her 2002 book, Freedom’s Daughters: A Juneteenth Story, that caught my eye.

Here’s the review from Publishers Weekly:

As Olson recounts it, the day after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the city’s black leaders held a mass meeting to promote a boycott. It was December 1955, and the meeting was packed with ministers and others who wanted to speak, among them Parks. The crowd never heard from her. “You’ve said enough,” one of the leaders told her. And with that, Olson says, Parks became a shining example of the role of women in the Civil Rights movement: they got things started and the men took the spotlight. With a large supply of such examples, Olson, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, showcases in this extensively researched history women like Ida Mae “Cat” Holland, a Mississippi prostitute whose failed attempt to proposition a leader in the voter registration drive of the early 1960s led her to a life of activism and, eventually, a Ph.D. and an academic career. We read about Fannie Lou Hamer, a poorly educated Mississippi native who movement leaders said could get people more worked up than Martin Luther King Jr. Ruby Doris Smith Robinson was the only woman to hold a top leadership job in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Robinson died of cancer at 25, but her female colleagues think what really killed her was her effort to keep the movement together. In simple but engaging prose, Olson offers a stunning portrait gallery of little-known heroines that will appeal to any reader interested in civil rights and women’s history, and she explores the psychology behind the relationships between men and women, black and white, throughout a watershed period in American history.

Some of the ground that Olson covers is familiar, but much of it is not. I was glad I picked up the book.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminist Legal History | Comments Off

Brooks on “The Potential for Feminist Analysis of International Revenue Allocation”

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Kim Brooks (McGill) has posted to SSRN her article “Global Distributive Justice: The Potential for Feminist Analysis of International Revenue Allocation,” 21 Canadian J. of Women & L. 267 (2009). Here is the abstract:

This article has a modest aim – to engage feminists and progressive international tax scholars in a shared dialogue about the importance of protecting and enhancing the state’s revenue-raising and international revenue distribution roles. To this end, the article reviews some of the feminist and critical race scholarship that might assist international tax scholars and policy makers concerned with issues of international revenue distribution; explains the role of tax treaties in allocating tax revenues between nations; applies a feminist analysis to the problem of this international revenue allocation project; and offers some tentative thoughts about a feminist approach to allocating a greater portion of international tax revenues to low-income countries.

The full article is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Economics, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off

Blog on hiatus due to technical issues.

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Hopefully blogging will resume soon.

Posted in Blog Administration | Comments Off

In Memory of My Mother

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

I am Very Busy these days Writing and Editing Important Work. I have no time to blog these days, and certainly not today. However, my mother is making me write this.

For those who know me, this may seem surprising, since today is the twentieth anniversary of the death of my mother Marie. (Marie was not her real name, but it’s what we called her, for a host of simple and complicated family reasons. I even insisted that it be put on her tombstone along with her “real” name.) In the past, in the years shortly after her death, I marked the days coming up to it and the anniversary itself with copious private tears, with the tears getting more private with every passing year. Big girls (and certainly not big boys) are not supposed to cry, right? I have, correspondingly, trained myself to cry less at her memory. Even now when I cry I think of how my mother used to complain about my crying as a child. I was the cryingist and whiningist child in America, she used to say. My crying and whining by themselves didn’t so much upset my mother; it was the reasons that I cried and whined. Like many children, I cried for many minor matters, assuredly. But I more often cried for things that were beyond my own personal childish grievances. I was always wanting things to be better and different, big things, things for everybody.

So, for example, I used to cry when my mother had to go off to one of her three jobs. I wondered why she had to work so hard and be gone all the time. (I remember, for example, overhearing my mother confiding to a friend that one of her employers owed her a dollar and a quarter from a previous week. She then spent at least half an hour trying to answer my query about what a dollar and a quarter was and why it mattered so much. Once I understood, I ended up crying because I didn’t want us to need the money. ) I didn’t understand that the days of my infancy and early toddlerhood, when she had no job at all and was with me much more of the time, were some of the worst days of her life. As a teen-aged mother she had struggled every day in a home where she contended with her own mother and with a community that looked down on her.

Later, when my mother sent me to live with my aunt while she, as she called it, “got her life together” (she eventually remarried and then spent time smoothing the way for her children to join her in her new home), I used to hide in the closet at my aunt’s house and cry. I cried not only because I felt abandoned but also because my mother couldn’t live like the mothers I read about in Dick and Jane books. When I was finally able to rejoin my mother I almost never cried in front of her. I had learned many things during my time away from her, among them that it was best to be as little trouble as possible if I expected to fit into her new life. She had enough troubles of her own and really didn’t need the added burden of dealing with America’s cryingist and whiningist child. The only time I remember crying in front of my mother between third and twelfth grades was when we were in an auto accident together when I was 14. During those years my tears were in private at all times, and even in private my tears were more like prayers, fervid supplications that my life and her life would be better at some point in the future.

(read the rest of the post here at Ain’t I a Feminist Legal Scholar, Too?)

-Lolita Buckner Inniss

Posted in Feminism and Families | Comments Off

Parenting, Female and Male, in Hours

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Since I became a parent, I’ve been feeling like a rare bird, an engaged parent who happens to be a male. Throughout my day, in the back of my mind, I object to the marginalization of male parents. A recent study may explain some of the marginalization. Nothing surprising perhaps, but it clarifies presumptions. In a recent study featured in the New York Times (here), social scientists gathered intensely close data about 32 families, noting what they were doing every ten minutes at home. The sexed nature of behavior pops out: “In addition to housework, mothers spent 19 percent of their time talking with family members or on the phone, and 11 percent taking occasional breathers that the study classified as “leisure.” The rates for fathers were 20 percent chatting, and 23 percent leisure — again, taken in fragments. Still, parents also had large amounts of solo time with their children, a total of 34 percent for mothers and 25 percent for fathers, on average.”

At least according to this study, male parents take 12 percent more leisure time than female parents, and female parents had 9 percent more solo time with their kids. The marginalization all adds up – at least in this study, most male parents spend substantially less time with their kids.

-Darren Rosenblum

Posted in Feminism and Families | Comments Off

New Study Finds Women and Girls Underrepresented and Oversexualized in Media

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Ann Bartow

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media has recently issued a report of the results of studies conducted about gender in media. The results can be viewed here (PDF). Among them:

Study 1: G-rated movies from 1990-Jan. 2005:

Fewer than one out of three (28%) of the speaking characters (both real and animated) are female.
More than four out of five (83%) of the films’ narrators are male.
85.5% of the characters in G-rated films are white, 4.8% are black, and 9.7% are from “other” ethnicities.

Study 2: G-, PG-, PG-13, R-Rated Prevalence and Portrayal, 1990-2006

73% of the characters are male. This translates into a ratio of 2.71 males to every 1 female.
Females were over five times as likely as males to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, which was defined as attire that enhances, exaggerates, or calls attention to any part of the body from neck to knees.
Females were nearly three times as likely as males (10.6% vs. 3.4%) to be shown with a thin figure.
Style of presentation affects how females are featured in G-rated films. Animated females are more likely to be shown in a thin and sexy light than are live action females.

null
Rainbow Brite got a “backlash” makeover…

From here, where there is more data and analysis.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminism and the Arts, The Overrepresentation of Men, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Half of the trained artists in the U.S. are women, yet they make up just 2% of the artists with works in the National Gallery in DC; at the contemporary art-focused Hirshhorn Museum, women make up only 5% of featured artists.

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Pamela T. Boll examines this disparity and its causes in her documentary Who Does She Think She Is?

Via.

–Ann Bartow

Posted in Feminism and the Arts, The Underrepresentation of Women | Comments Off

Huntington on “Purple Haze”

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Clare Huntington (Colorado) has posted to SSRN her review essay Purple Haze, __ Mich. L. Rev. (forthcoming), a review of Naomi Cahn and June Carbone’s Red Families v. Blue Families. Here is the abstract:

In this age of vitriolic politics, it is vitally important to understand and try to defuse the culture wars. Red Families v. Blue Families makes a timely and important contribution to this effort, explaining why the culture wars over the family continue to resonate and also offering potential solutions for moving beyond the red-blue divide. This Review argues that Cahn and Carbone offer tremendous insight into the culture wars, even if their descriptive frame of red families versus blue families has its limitations. The Review further contends that although their proposed solutions of changing the subject and embracing family law federalism may work in some circumstances, these solutions are of limited assistance for some of the most important family law reforms. This Review builds upon the insights of Red Families v. Blue Families to develop a pragmatic approach to the political divide that neither avoids true differences nor retreats to balkanized localism

The full review is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminist Legal Scholarship | 1 Comment

New York Reforms Law on Establishing Paternity for Inheritance Purposes

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

New York State Governor David A. Paterson has signed into law a bill that allows paternity to be established for inheritance purposes by genetic marker test. The text of the bill is here. The Governor’s press release is here.

The Surrogate’s Court Advisory Committee to the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of the State of New York recommended the change in its January 2009 report (here).

Appellate courts in New York were previously split on whether genetic testing had to be performed during the father’s lifetime (Matter of Janis, 157 Misc. 2d 999 [NY Co. 1993], aff’d 210 AD2d 620 [1st Dept 1994], requiring testing during life), or could be performed through tests after the purported father’s death (Matter of Sandler, 160 Misc 2d 955 [NY Co. 1994]; Matter of Nasert, 192 Misc 2d [Richmond Co. 2002], allowing post-death testing of relatives). A case in New York’s Second Judicial Department, Matter of Poldrugovaz, 50 AD3d 117 [2d Dept 2008]) had muddied the water, providing that a genetic marker test functioned as “clear and convincing evidence” as long as there was some lifetime (but not necessarily the statutorily-requred “open and notorious”) acknowledgment of parentage by the father.

In summary, the law brings clarity to New York’s estates law and will make it easier for nonmarital children to share in their fathers’ estates.

-Bridget Crawford

(H/T Bill LaPiana)

Posted in Feminism and Families | 1 Comment

2010 Status Update – Women and Legal Education

Posted on April 29, 2010 by admin

According to blogs in the legal academy, women did not fare well this year in the law school lateral hire market, with the majority of lateral moves being made by men.

Further, Supreme Court clerkships are weighty credentials among academics and aspiring academics, yet it appears that neither Justice Scalia nor Justice Kennedy hired a female law clerk this past hiring season.

Why is this?

The reality is that the people doing the hiring – the Supreme Court Justices and hiring committees at law schools – are people who are well-schooled in the value of diversity and are people who recognize that it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of gender, so I am at a loss to understand why hiring in the lateral market and hiring by Supreme Court justices does not work out well for women. Maybe someday Larry Summers will opine on this issue.

(The argument that women are not willing to move to D.C. to clerk or for prestigious lateral moves does not hold weight. As the former chair of the AALS Section on Women in Legal Education, I personally know many women who would have moved if asked, and the reality is that women who make it through top law schools with top grades and honors such that they are credible candidates for S.Ct. clerkships or law school hiring tend to be women who are willing to sacrifice to some degree personally to bolster a career.)

-Elizabeth Nowicki

Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Law Teaching, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Latest Issue of “Feminist Periodicals”

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The most recent issue of Feminist Periodicals is available here, courtesy of the excellent Phyllis Holman Weisbard, University of Wisconsin System Women’s Studies Librarian, and her staff. The most recent issue is a 240+ page compilation of the tables of contents of 100+ recent gender-related scholarly journals. A sample of the included journals appears after the jump.

For folks doing interdisciplinary research, browsing “Feminist Periodicals” is a great way to cover alot of ground quickly. Thank you, UW Women’s Studies librarians!

-Bridget Crawford

Continue reading →

Posted in Feminist Legal Scholarship | 1 Comment

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