High divorce rates and teen pregnancy are worse in conservative states than liberal states, but moral panic won’t help lower divorce rates and teen pregnancy in conservative states; education will.

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Read a recent op-ed by this title written by Feminist Law Profs Extraordinare Naomi Cahn and June Carbone here!

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law, Reproductive Rights | Comments Off on High divorce rates and teen pregnancy are worse in conservative states than liberal states, but moral panic won’t help lower divorce rates and teen pregnancy in conservative states; education will.

New Law Blog on Religion and the First Amendment!

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Leslie Griffiths (Houston) just started a blog on religion and the first amendment.

Check it out here:   http://www.religionrogue.blogspot.com/

Share
Posted in Academia, Feminism and Religion | Comments Off on New Law Blog on Religion and the First Amendment!

CFP: Critical Thought, Critical Action, U of Idaho Sept. 24-25, 2010

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

From the FLP mailbox, this call for papers and participation from students at the University of Idaho College of Law:

the crit, a critical legal studies journal, is hosting its first annual Critical Legal Studies conference. The conference will take place at University of Idaho College of Law. The main objectives of this conference are:

  • To uproot and disentangle the canons embedded in the CLS movement. We will strive to unravel the history of the movement, and to turnover new ideas and scatter fresh seeds of thought.
  • To sow and develop a strategy to implant the idea that Critical Legal Studies is an aggressive, inclusive movement. We hope to stimulate critical thought and nurture the relevance of critical societal analysis – an analysis that applies critical thought to our lives and creates a nexus among critical thinkers to further develop the CLS movement.
  • To cultivate and harvest action in an effort to reconstruct our collective thinking, strive to solve societal problems, and effectively promote harmony and respect while creating a dialogue from which to create a better world.

the crit invites submission proposals for individual papers and multimedia productions from all disciplines and fields of study that incorporate any of the above stated objectives while exploring the critical legal studies movement. Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The history and future of Critical Legal Studies
  • The relevance of CLS
  • The impact of ideas and academic concepts on peoples’ lives
  • Language’s role in, and influence upon, the law
  • Feminism
  • Race theory
  • Gender identity
  • The Enlightenment conception of the individual
  • Education and socialization
  • The distinction between law and politics
  • Equality of opportunity versus equality in results

All submissions should be original work created by the submitting author. Any other works used within the body of the submission must be cited using either Bluebook citation format (for textual legal submissions) or MLA citation format (for textual submissions from other disciplines). We will vary traditional citation formats to the extent that we will permit citations to contain the first and last names of the cited scholars (see Katharine Bartlett’s Feminist Legal Methods, 103 Harv. L. Rev. 829 Ft:* (1990) for an explanation). This is not mandatory but can be done at the author’s discretion.

Multimedia submissions of all types are also invited.   Such works must credit cited works either within the body of the piece or in ending credits.

Abstracts must be electronically received or postmarked by May 14, 2010. Following internal review of the abstracts, and acceptance decisions will be communicated by June 1, 2010.

To submit an abstract or multimedia work, email:   BusinessEditor@live.com. Submission Deadline is May 14, 2010.   Author Notification by June 1, 2010. Final Copy Deadline is October 29, 2010.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off on CFP: Critical Thought, Critical Action, U of Idaho Sept. 24-25, 2010

Dress Professionally and Be Excellent, NYSBA Advises Women Attorneys

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Remember the “distinguished panel of gentlemen from the legal field” who were going to  discuss women’s strengths and weaknesses at the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association?   (See here, here and here.)   The organizers changed the title of the proposed panel,  â€œTheir Point of View: Tips From the Other Side,”to”Sharing Their Points of View: Tips From Both Sides,” and the January program went forward with different participants and a modified program description (see here).

In case you missed the live program, here’s how Patricia Sears Doherty, Editor of the NYSBA State Bar News, writing for that publication, described the event’s substantive discussion:

The three actions most recommended by the panelists were the need to find a personal brand, the need for a professional mentor, and the over-riding need to”be excellent”at the law.  

“Branding yourself means building the equity that you need to advance,” said Katherine Frink-Hamlett, president of Frink-Hamlett Legal Solutions, Inc.”Today, [women lawyers] need to make sure that we don’t toil in obscurity.”   That means women lawyers should be unafraid to tout their skills and successes to their colleagues as well as to potential clients. * * *    

Terri A. Mazur of New York (Mayer Brown, LLP) suggested a deliberate cross-marketing effort among many practice areas for women at law firms.”To succeed in this world, we all haveto be much more focused on marketing at each stage of our careers,”said Mazur.”Display your credibility in everything that you do: dress professionally, act mature at all times and be ethical and honest. To mis-cite or not have all of the facts could be a death knell for your career,”Mazur said. The most important strategy that women lawyers need to display is accuracy and knowledge of their chosen field of expertise, said Angela S. Barker of New York (Law Office of Angela Barker & Associates).”You can’t say that you do an area of the law and not understand that area inside and out,”she said. * * *

“The key to success is to be excellent in what you do,”said State Bar Past President Mark H. Alcott of New York (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton &  Garrison LLP).”If you focus primarily on the quality of what you do, it will stand you in good stead.”

The full article is available here (access by NYSBA members only; can’t find an open source – sorry).

Any acknowledgment by the organizers that the original program was ill-conceived and terribly described?   Nope.   Any great take-away advice from the panelists of the revised program?   Nope.   Any possibility that the reputation of the NYSBA Committee on Women in the Law will improve because of the program it sponsored?   Nope.

Don’t forget to dress professionally and be excellent.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Legal Profession | Comments Off on Dress Professionally and Be Excellent, NYSBA Advises Women Attorneys

Is there a gendered difference in how long it takes someone to become a “real” citizen?

Posted on March 22, 2010 by rrobson

That’s not exactly the question in Flores-Villar v. United States, a case in which the Court granted cert. today.   But the case does involve a statute which provided a gender differential for unmarried mothers and unmarried fathers regarding the citizenship rights of their children: citizen fathers had to reside in the United States four years longer than citizen mothers.   Additionally, the citizen father had to reside in the United States for at least five years after his fourteenth birthday – – – a”impossibility”in Flores-Villar because the citizen father was sixteen years old at the time of the birth of the child.

The Ninth Circuit upheld the statutory scheme against a challenge of gender discrimination, relying on Nguyen v. INS, 533 U.S. 53 (2001).

Maybe women are just “quicker” than men in making a new home?

For more analysis, see Constitutional Law Professors blog here.

– Ruthann Robson

Share
Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Families, Immigration | Comments Off on Is there a gendered difference in how long it takes someone to become a “real” citizen?

“Chess For Girls” from SNL around 1997 – Has anything changed?

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Ann Bartow


via videosift.com

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, If you're a woman, Sexism in the Media | Comments Off on “Chess For Girls” from SNL around 1997 – Has anything changed?

“All in the Family? Interdisciplinary Conference on Kinship and Community” March 25-26 at CUNY

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

On March 25 and 26, 2010, the CUNY Graduate Center will host the conference, “All in the Family?  An Interdisciplinary  Conference on  Kinship and Community.”  The program is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities; the Andrew W. Mellon  Foundation; philoSOPHIA: A Feminist Society; and Vanderbilt University.  The image above is from the publicity for the conference.

Feminist Law Prof Ruthann Robson (CUNY) is a featured presenter in the conference’s closing session.  She will preset her piece  UnSettled (forthcoming in Queer Empire, an anthology from Routledge).  UnSettled is a reading and assemblage/slide show  that   explores the links and dissonances amongst five colonial/post-colonial societies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the  US, specifically Appalachia and California) with regard to their  indigenous peoples and their colonizers, and the struggles with  family, sexuality, and law.

Other law faculty presenters include Carlos Ball (Rutgers Newark) speaking about  â€œThe Case of the Transgender Parent in  Contemporary American Law”  and Barbara Fedders (UNC) speaking on  â€œSetting a Price on Whiteness: Race  and Market Values in Domestic Infant Adoption.”

Looks like a great program!

All sessions are free and open to the public.  The conference will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center at  365 Fifth Ave (btwn 34th & 35th).  The full program is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Families, LGBT Rights, Upcoming Conferences | Comments Off on “All in the Family? Interdisciplinary Conference on Kinship and Community” March 25-26 at CUNY

Take the Power and Do Justice, Urges Family Court Judge

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The Honorable Kathie E. Davidson

Today, the Women’s Association of Law Students at my school (Pace)  celebrated the achievements of The Honorable Kathie E. Davidson, the Supervising Judge of the (New York State) Ninth Judicial District Family Courts.  

In accepting an award from the students, Judge Davidson read portions of the inspirational poem “This Life is Yours!” by Susan Polis Schultz to urge law students to work for justice for women and children.   Here is an excerpt:

Take the power

to control your own life

noone else can do it for you

Take the power

to make your life healthy,

exciting, worthwhile

and very happy while

you reach for

 your dreams

At this point in the semester, it didn’t take Shakespeare to inspire the students.   They responded favorably to this language.

 

I must admit that I had more than an ounce of resistance to attending yet another weekend event at the law school (when is the semester over again?).   Why do the students insist on giving this “Pioneer of Justice and Equality” award every year?   Certainly the concept of a “pioneer” is outdated, right?  

 

Celebrating the achievement of women in the legal profession is an opportunity for law students (and law teachers) to pause to recommit to the difficult day-to-day project of achieving justice and equality for all vulnerable people.   We remind ourselves of how much women have accomplished through the law, but how much work  there still  is for the law (and for us) to do  

 

And how much there is to do!

 

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Courts and the Judiciary | Comments Off on Take the Power and Do Justice, Urges Family Court Judge

Money Talks When Animals and (Some) People Cannot

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The New York Times reported earlier this week (here) on state legislation under consideration in three jurisdictions.   The proposed laws would allow courts to prohibit animal abusers from having pets in the future.   According to the NYT, 27 states now have similar laws.

Animal lawyers and law scholars long have acknowledged the connection between animal abuse and violence against women.   For recent scholarship, see, e.g., Caroline Anne Forell,  Using a Jury of Her Peers to Teach About the Connection between Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse, 15 Animal L. Rev. 53 (2008).   The NYT article leads with a statement claiming that proposed legislation is”[r]esponding to growing evidence that people who abuse animals often go on to attack humans.”   But the article makes more of the cost to state and local governments of caring for abused animals that are rescued.   The article cites $1.2 million in expenses by Franklin County, Ohio officials caring for 170 rescued dogs.   A Michigan county paid $37,000 in clean-up costs when dead animals were found in a hoarders home.

This leaves one with the impression that the least vulnerable among us get legal protection only when its absence becomes too expensive for the state. A society or government that listens only when money talks does not adequately respond to those with the greatest needs.

-Bridget Crawford

(cross-post from Animal Blawg)

Share
Posted in Feminism and Animal Law | Comments Off on Money Talks When Animals and (Some) People Cannot

Sussing Out a School’s Scholarly Culture

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

In an article otherwise about the perils of discussing family matters and responsibilities at work, I stumbled upon this description of a job-seeker’s experience:

A friend who is a high-powered scholar told me about his job interview at an allegedly turbocharged department at a top research university that was heavily wooing him. As he put it, “One guy boasted about how he was neglecting a book project because he was occupied in fixing up his lake cabin’s deck.” Indeed, the two days of interviews revealed to him a corporate culture fixated on families, hobbies, and leisure. The department offered him a job, but he turned it down knowing that part of the meaning of “research support” is finding a research culture that matches your own character.  

I have lamented before (here and here) the “canned” nature of questions from entry-level faculty candidates in the law teaching market (“What kind of support does the school provide for junior scholars?”).   The Chronicle article quoted above made me think about the more subtle ways of sussing out a school’s scholarly culture.  

Asking a prospective colleague about what he or she is working on right now might be a good way to get an impression of a school’s scholarly vibe.   If a candidate asks several faculty members that question and  hears too many responses along the lines of, “Well, I’m between projects right now,” that’s a pretty good indication that the faculty might not be all that engaged in scholarship.     On the bright side, a pattern of answers like this also signals that faculty members know that they’re supposed to be publishing, but feel a bit sheepish that they’re not, and at least have the common sense to refrain from saying, “I haven’t written a law review article in years.”

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Academia | Comments Off on Sussing Out a School’s Scholarly Culture

“House of the Setting Sun”

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Interviews with residents of a home for elderly prostitutes in Mexico City – watch Part One here, and Part Two here.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Coerced Sex, Sisters In Other Nations | Comments Off on “House of the Setting Sun”

The (White) Female Scholar-Athlete

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports (here) on a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida’s College of Business Administration.   The UCF press report  (here)  summarizes the findings of:

97 percent (58 schools) of the women’s teams [in the brackets of the NCAA tournament] graduated at least 40 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes compared to the 91 percent (53 schools) which graduated 40 percent or more of their African-American basketball student-athletes, only a six percentage point gap for women compared to a 16 percentage point gap for men. Among the men’s teams [in the brackets of the NCAA tournament]  91 percent (52 schools) graduated 40 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, compared to the 75 percent 48 schools) which graduated 40 percent or more of their African-American basketball student athletes.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Sports | Comments Off on The (White) Female Scholar-Athlete

Coyote Publishing v. Ross Miller: 9th Circuit Upholds Restrictions on Ads for Prostitution

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Ann Bartow

The opinion is available here. The ads at issue were characterized as “pure commercial speech.” Below are two excerpts in which the court explains the ways that legalized prostitution drives the demand for sex slaves and sex trafficking:

The federal government acknowledges the link between prostitution and trafficking in women and children, a form of modern day slavery. See U.S. Department of State, The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking (November 24, 2004). And federal law prohibits the transportation of persons in interstate or foreign commerce for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sexual activity. White Slave Traffic Act, 36 Stat. 825, 18 U.S.C. § 2421-2124 (1910). Although Nevada has opted for partial legalization, Nevada too has taken significant steps to limit prostitution, including the total ban on the practice in by far the largest population center, the permission to other counties to ban the practice, and the advertising restrictions here at issue. [page 4123].

And

We emphasize that our holding is grounded in two distinctive characteristics of prostitution, each of which is critical to our conclusion: First, prohibitions on prostitution reflect not a desire to discourage the underlying sexual activity itself but its sale. Prostitution without the exchange of money is simply sex, which in most manifestations is not a target of state regulators. But cf. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). The risk that states will cite the risk of commodification as a fig leaf for hostility to the underlying”product,”so to speak : which might be present if an anti-commodification rationale were advanced to justify bans on other types of advertising : is minimal here. More fundamentally, this genuine objection to buying and selling means that in the context of prostitution an advertisement is an integral aspect of the harm to be avoided. In contract terms, an advertisement is an invitation to deal and may operate as an offer, though in the typical case it does not bind the seller. See Joseph M. Perillo, I CORBIN ON 16Nevada’s approach of partial legalization and strict regulation does find analogues in several foreign jurisdictions. See, e.g., Prostitution Reform Act 2003, 2003 S.N.Z. No. 28 (N.Z.); Prostitution Act, 1992 (Austl.); Mohamed Y. Mattar, Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, in Countries of the Middle East: The Scope of the Problem and the Appropriate Legislative Responses, 26 FORDHAM INT’L L. J. 721, 735 (2003) citing Law of 6 February 1931, art. 7 (Leb.). Speech that”does no more than propose a commercial transaction,”see Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy, 425 U.S. at 762, is particularly susceptible to regulation when the state’s objection is to the commercial transaction itself.

Second, public disapproval of prostitution’s commodifying tendencies has an impressive historical pedigree. In the minds of early opponents, prostitution was closely bound up with slavery : the paradigmatic case of a dehumanizing market transaction. See Maude E. Miner, The Slavery of Prostitution: A Plea for Emancipation ix (1916) (doctoral thesis at Columbia University) (“[Women Offenders’] demoralization of character has constituted moral enslavement.”); Amy Dru Stanley, FROM BONDAGE TO CONTRACT 219 & 237 (1998) (citing Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual Report 117 (1872) (lamenting that prostitution implied”the necessity of making merchandise of body and soul”)). The sale of sex was not widely criminalized for much of our nation’s history. Prostitution was instead covered only by prohibitions on vagrancy and”streetwalking”; the bans did not extend to brothels or other indoor locations in which sale of sex occurred. See Howard B. Woolston, PROSTITUTION IN THE UNITED STATES 25 (1920); Ruth Rosen, THE LOST SISTERHOOD 36 (1982). The legal condemnation of prostitution as such did not arrive until after the Civil War, when a coalition of prominent abolitionists and feminists defeated attempts to license houses of prostitution in several states. David J. Pivar, PURITY CRUSADE: SEXUAL MORALITY AND SOCIAL CONTROL, 1868-1900, 52, 55, 67 (1973). William Lloyd Garrison lent his name to anti-licensing efforts, id. at 67, which often explicitly invoked slavery and the evils of commodification, see Stanley, FROM BONDAGE TO CONTRACT at 257-58 (quoting Elizabeth Blackwell, The Purchase of Women: The Great Economic Blunder (1916) (originally published 1886) (“[T]he slaveholding principle that the human body may be an article of merchandise is still applied to women.”)). The anti-commodification orientation of the early opponents of legalized prostitution was reflected in the nature of the criminal prohibitions adopted early in the twentieth century. Criminal laws were not directed at women themselves but at those profiting from”commercialized forms of vice.”See Woolston at 32.”Between 1911 and 1915, . . . practically every state in the Union [passed] laws punishing those guilty of forcing girls and women into prostitution, those guilty of pandering, and those living off the earnings of prostitution.”Id. In 1910, Congress passed the White Slave Traffic Act, underscoring the extent to which policymakers associated prostitution with involuntary servitude and the overriding concern with commercial manifestations of the practice, especially interstate and international trafficking in women. Stat. 825 (1910).

Though attitudes towards the sale of sexual services have continued to change and evolve since the early twentieth century, this history reinforces the conclusion that Nevada’s objection is genuinely to the buying and selling of sex. Banning commodification of sex entirely is a substantial policy goal that all states but Nevada have chosen to adopt. Uniquely among the states, Nevada has not structured its laws to pursue this substantial state interest to the exclusion of all others. Rather, it has adopted a nuanced approach to the sale of sexual services, grounded in part in concern about the negative health and safety impacts of unregulated, illegal prostitution. By permitting some legal prostitution, Nevada has been able to subject a portion of the market for paid sex to extensive regulation, while continuing severely to limit the diffusion of sexual commodification through its banning of prostitution where by far most Nevadans live … [p. 4129 et. seq.]

I particularly appreciate the way that Peggy Radin’s important work influenced the court.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Coerced Sex, Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Law, Human Trafficking | Comments Off on Coyote Publishing v. Ross Miller: 9th Circuit Upholds Restrictions on Ads for Prostitution

Greening Your Pleasure

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Step 1: Take the LoveHoney Rabbit Amnesty Test.Step 2: Buy an new rabbit vibrator for half price.Step 3: Send us your old Rabbit and enjoy your ecogasms.

The UK company LoveHoney has announced a “Rabbit Amnesty” program, and they’re not talking about Bugs (as in Warner Bros.), the car (as in VW) or even lepus capensis:

When you recycle a rabbit vibrator with Rabbit Amnesty, LoveHoney will donate £1 to the World Land Trust for the charity’s tropical forest land purchase and protection projects. We have started off with a £1,000 donation to buy and protect 20 acres of tropical forest.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and the Environment | Comments Off on Greening Your Pleasure

Where are the Women? SUPREME COURT ECONOMIC REVIEW ADDITION (NB: that is a pun on “edition” for the humor impaired, given the focus on sum numbers.) (Yes, “sum” is another bad pun! Try to keep up!)

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Ann Bartow

17 SUPREME COURT ECONOMIC REVIEW, PP. 1-337, 2009.

Symposium on Post-Kelo Reform. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 1-278 (2009).

Somin, Ilya. Introduction to the symposium. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 1-5 (2009).

Dana, David A. Exclusionary eminent domain. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 7-62 (2009).

Eagle, Steven J. Kelo, directed growth, and municipal industrial policy. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 63-126 (2009).

Ely, James W., Jr. Post-Kelo reform: is the glass half full or half empty? 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 127-150 (2009).

Epstein, Richard A. Public use in a post-Kelo world. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 151-171 (2009).

Kelly, Daniel B. Pretextual takings: of private developers, local governments, and impermissible favoritism. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 173-235 (2009).

Morriss, Andrew P. Symbol or substance? An empirical assessment of state responses to Kelo. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 237-278 (2009).

Fon, Vincy and Francesco Parisi. Stability and change in international customary law. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 279-309 (2009).

Wright, Joshua D. Antitrust analysis of category management: Conwood v. United States Tobacco Co. 17 Sup. Ct. Econ. Rev. 311-337 (2009).

****
Only half an article by a woman in the entire volume, Vincy Fon, along with eight men. 309 pages of d00dliness. Fon & Parisi have a different topic and aren’t in the symposium on post-Kelo reform. Soooo, that’d be 278 pages of symposium d00dliness and zero women.

The symposium topic is “Post Kelo Reform.” I’m sure some women law profs are interested enough in the decision to write about it if asked. Hell, Kelo herself is a woman — and not a passive named plaintiff propped up by the Cato Institute either. The symposium folks could have asked to excerpt part of her book about the case if they had nothing else.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Academia, The Overrepresentation of Men, The Underrepresentation of Women | 2 Comments

You Won THAT in a Raffle?

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

First prize in a UK raffle is a human egg.

This “raffle” is part of a repulsive publicity ploy by the U.S.-based Genetics & IVF Institute (which bills itself as “the world’s largest, fully integrated, specialized provider of infertility and genetics services“) and the UK-based London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre.

The London Mail has the story here.

This “raffle” should shock the doubt out of anyone who has ever questioned the existence of a massive commercial trade in human body parts — and human eggs, in particular.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Reproductive Rights, Women and Economics, Women's Health | Comments Off on You Won THAT in a Raffle?

CFP: Teaching Gender as a Core Value

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Call for Panelists
AALS Section on Women in Legal Education

“Teaching Gender as a Core Value”
2011 AALS Annual Meeting
January 4-8, 2011
San Francisco, California

The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education will hold a program during the AALS 2011 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, with panelists who will share methods of teaching gender in”core courses”such as legal writing, torts, contracts, corporations, federal income tax, civil procedure, contracts, or criminal law, among others not traditionally understood to include gender.   The panel will also include a paper presentation by the winner of “Teaching Gender as a Core Value” competition.

The 2011 AALS conference theme is “Core Values.”   The Section on Women in Legal Education will be focusing on teaching gender issues as a “core value.”   This includes both teaching gender across the curriculum and best practices for incorporating gender issues in the classroom.   While many in the academy are in agreement that gender issues impact a range of legal issues, what is less clear is how law faculty can successfully implement the pervasive teaching of gender in their classrooms and schools.   This program will include a variety of perspectives and will explore ways gender issues can be successfully incorporated into law school teaching.

To be considered as a panelist please submit a note of interest by Friday, March 31, 2010, including a description (2 paragraphs is sufficient) of the course that you teach and the methods that you use to teach gender that you would discuss as part of the panel.   Please also submit a vita.

Panelists will be selected by April 15, 2010.   Each selected panelist will be required to submit a 3 – 5 page paper in December 2010, describing their gender teaching technique(s), for use by the moderator.   The Section hopes to have these papers published.

Call for Panelists participants will be responsible for paying their annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses. Full-time faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools, are eligible to submit papers. Foreign, visiting (and not full-time on a different faculty) and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible to submit.

Any inquiries about the Call for Panelists should be submitted to:

Professor Danne Johnson
OCU School of Law
405-208-5861
djohnson@okcu.edu

Share
Posted in Call for Papers or Participation, Law Teaching | Comments Off on CFP: Teaching Gender as a Core Value

Georgia judge obstructs effort by Hustler to pornify photo of murdered hiker; Georgia law preventing distribution of certain crime scene photos has also been proposed.

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Ann Bartow

From CNN:

Photos of the nude and decapitated body of a murdered hiker, sought by a writer on assignment for Hustler magazine, will not be released, a judge in Georgia ordered Wednesday.

The decision came as state lawmakers considered legislation that would ban public release of graphic photos of crime victims. First Amendment lawyers say the legislation could have a chilling effect on open records requests.

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Daniel Coursey issued a temporary order restraining the Georgia Bureau of Investigation from releasing “any and all photographs, visual images or depictions of Meredith Emerson which show Emerson in an unclothed or dismembered state.

Emerson’s family sought the order after learning of the request for copies of crime scene photos of the 24-year-old, attorney Lindsay Haigh said. Emerson’s admitted killer, Gary Michael Hilton, received a life sentence in exchange for leading investigators to her body in the north Georgia mountains on January 7, 2008, six days after Emerson disappeared.

The judge’s order came on the same day the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed “The Meredith Emerson Memorial Privacy Act,” which would prevent gruesome crime scene photos from being publicly released or disseminated, according to Rep. Jill Chambers, the bill’s principal sponsor.

House Bill 1322 would prevent the release of photographs of the bodies of crime victims that are “nude, bruised, bloodied or in a broken state with open wounds, a state of dismemberment or decapitation,” said Chambers. …

The article notes that if this becomes law, First Amendment challenges will assuredly follow. I’d guess they will succeed because the countervailing privacy interests are unlikely to be given much weight. I don’t look forward to reading the words of people I otherwise respect arguing that the impact of having the photo circulated publicly on Meredith Emerson’s family and friends should not be taken into account.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Culture | 4 Comments

CFP: Women and International Criminal Law

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

From the FLP mailbox, this CFP:

Call for Papers: Women & International Criminal Law
Special Issue of the International Criminal Law Review
Dedicated to Judge Patricia M. Wald

The International Criminal Law Review invites submissions for its 2010  special issue entitled “Women and International Criminal Law,” to be  guest-edited by Diane Marie Amann, University of California, Davis,  School of Law; Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Temple University Beasley School of  Law; and Beth Van Schaack, University of Santa Clara School of Law.

The  Special Issue is dedicated to Judge Patricia M. Wald, a pathbreaker in  international criminal law who has served as Chief Judge for the U.S.  Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a Judge on the  International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a member of  the Iraq Intelligence Commission, Co-Chair of the American Society of  International Law Task Force on the International Criminal Court, and  Chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

This special issue is devoted to the topic of women and international  criminal law. Although the majority of the articles have been solicited  from prominent academics and practitioners in the field of international
criminal law and feminist jurisprudence, the editors have reserved  several slots for submissions in response to this call to papers.  Submissions should be inspired by this theme statement:

Special Issue Theme: Women & International Criminal Law

The law, it has been noted, “has not always served women well.”  The critique extends readily to international law.  Until very recently, women were absent from the processes of  international law formation and enforcement, and invisible within  substantive law reflective of the male experience. Mirroring the  public/private divide running through much of law and society, the law,  and those with the power to use it, tended to treat all forms of gender  violence as opportunistic, peripheral, or private crimes reflecting  personal motives and desires unconnected to issues of international  importance.

Thanks to the tireless work of committed advocates, jurists  and diplomats, international criminal law now treats many forms of  gender violence as prosecutable offences against the physical and mental  integrity of the victim. With the promulgation of the Statute of the  International Criminal Court and the voluminous jurisprudence of the ad  hoc criminal tribunals, the law now sanctions the prosecution of gender  crimes as war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and the  predicate acts of genocide.

Women have stood front and center to push these developments. Other  international institutions often are dominated by men.   Yet women have  served in top posts in all of the modern tribunals, as Presidents  (Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, Navanethem Pillay, and Renate Winter),  Registrar (Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh), Chief Prosecutors (Louise  Arbour and Carla Del Ponte), Deputy Prosecutors (Fatou Bensouda), Gender  Advisors (Patricia Viseur Sellers and Catharine MacKinnon), and in many  other judicial, prosecution, defense, and administrative capacities.

The tribunals are approaching gender parity in staffing, although women  remain concentrated in the lower professional grades.   International  criminal law is thus one area of international law in which women have  made headway in terms of substantive law and institutional access;  still, significant obstacles remain to ensure a robust system of gender  justice in the face of continued violations.

The field of international criminal law nears a watershed moment, as ad  hoc tribunals wind down and the International Criminal Court becomes  fully operational.  This opportune time invites reflection on whether  international criminal law should be considered a feminist project.  Accordingly, this volume offers sustained study of how international  criminal law affects women and how women have affected international  criminal law. We welcome submissions on the following topics:

* Can, and has, international criminal law improved the material  conditions of women’s lives and promoted the dignity of women?
* Is participation in international criminal justice liberating and  transformative, or alienating and regressive?
* What legal reforms, procedural devices, advocacy strategies, and  institutional arrangements can be employed to ensure that women  experience the former and not the latter?
* Does fixation on criminal penalties constrain imagination and  implementation of other ways to respond to the needs, demands, and  aspirations of women in situations of armed conflict, mass violence,  abuse, and repression?
* How have women as activists, victims, lawyers, and perpetrators changed the field?
* How has the gender jurisprudence advanced, or impeded, the  development of international criminal law?
* Has international criminal law changed the way we think about  violence against women?

This volume looks beyond sex crimes to consider multiple ways that  women experience war and repression, as agents of change, as victims,  and as perpetrators.   The study adopts critical perspectives to  challenge conceptual boundaries between and within public  international law, international criminal law, international  humanitarian law, and international human rights that tend to eclipse  the intersectionalities of women’s identities and to fragment women’s  experiences with violence, based upon whether violence occurs in a time  of war or peace, whether it occurs at home or in a detention center, or  whether the perpetrator is a state actor or a private person. Our hope  is that the new perspectives presented in this collection will advance  our thinking about gender and international law across a number of  disciplines.   We welcome your participation in this historic effort to  examine the impact of international criminal law on women, and vice  versa.

Special Issue Logistics

The volume will be published in spring 2011. Judge Wald and other  contributors will present their works at a roundtable hosted at the  American Society of International Law’s Tillar House in Washington,  D.C., on October 29, 2010, days before the tenth anniversary of the  first U.N. Security Council resolution on Women, Peace and Security.

To ensure anonymity in the selection phase, please submit a solid draft  essay or article, in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 words, with all  identifying information redacted, to Kathleen A. Doty, by way of an  e-mail attachment in Word format (kadoty@ucdavis.edu), by April 15,  2010.   Please note the paper’s title (which should match exactly the  title of the redacted paper) and your name and contact information in  the body of the e-mail.

Once papers have been selected, they will be subject to a full edit and  peer review in advance of the October roundtable. The final draft of the  paper will be due no later than March 1, 2011, and should adhere to the  International Criminal Law Review style sheet, which is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Call for Papers or Participation | Comments Off on CFP: Women and International Criminal Law

Importance of Honesty in Donor-Conceived Families

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

At the Denver Motherhood conference, I’m listening now to a talk by Wendy Kramer, co-founder and Director of the Donor Sibling Registry.  Here’s an excerpt from the organization’s “About Us” statement:

The Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) was founded in 2000 to assist individuals conceived as a result of sperm, egg or embryo donation that are seeking to make mutually desired contact with others with whom they share genetic ties.   Without any outside support, the DSR has single-handedly pioneered a national discussion about the donor conception industry and families, with it’s many media appearances and interviews. DSR advocates for the right to honesty and transparency for donor kids, and for social acceptance, legal rights and valuing the diversity of all families.

The DSR’s core value is honesty, with the conviction that people have the fundamental right to information about their biological origins and identities. The donor conception industry is largely a for-profit enterprise, and after the”product”has been purchased, most doctors, clinics and cryobanks have not engaged in discussions and activities acknowledging the humanity and rights of the donor-conceived. It is our mission to bring these concepts to the attention of the public arena for discussion, as has been done in many European countries.

More information is here.

Ms. Kramer predicts that anonymous sperm donation eventually will be eliminated in the United States.  She is also critical of the fertility industry’s failure to  study health histories of egg donors.

She referenced a study of 750 donor-conceived children (52% of those surveyed were not affiliated with the Donor Sibling Registry).  70% of respondents say they wished their known parent had used a non-anonymous donor.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Medicine, Reproductive Rights | Comments Off on Importance of Honesty in Donor-Conceived Families

Video Now Available for Symposium on Judith Butler

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Katherine Franke

In case you weren’t able to attend the Symposium we held last Friday at Columbia Law School, recognizing the influence of Judith Butler’s work to the law of gender and sexuality, you can now watch videos of the three panels and Butler’s Keynote.

Over 500 people attended the event, hearing Janet Halley, Kathryn Abrams, Dean Spade, David Eng, Morris Kaplan, Joan Scott, Amy Adler, Martha Umphrey, Ritu Birla, Ariela Dubler, Elizabeth Emens, Katherine Franke, Kendall Thomas and Suzanne Goldberg address the mulitple ways in which Butler’s work has been taken up in law.   This was the first such conference of its kind, and the papers were outstanding.   They will be published in a special issue of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.

Watch the videos below:

Bodies of Law:

Janet Halley, Harvard Law School
Kathryn Abrams, UC  Berkeley, School of Law
Dean Spade, University of Seattle Law School


Kinship, Friendship &  Ethics of the Self:

Joan Scott, Institute for Advanced Study
Morris Kaplan, SUNY Purchase, Philosohpy
David Eng, U. Penn, English


Power and Performativity:

Martha Umphrey, Amherst College, Jurisprudence &  Social Thought
Amy Adler, NYU Law School
Ritu Birla, U. Toronto, History


Keynote by Judith Butler:

Katherine Franke – cross posted from Gender & Sexuality Law Blog

Share
Posted in Academia | Comments Off on Video Now Available for Symposium on Judith Butler

U Denver Conference “Motherhood: Reclaiming Our Past, Transforming Our Future”

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The conference “Motherhood: Reclaiming Our Past, Transforming Our Future” has just gotten under way at University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Dean Martin Katz (Denver) gave a blissfully short welcome, followed by Professor Judy Walsh (University of Dublin School of Law & UCD School of Social Justice).

University of Dublin School of Law & UCD School of Social Justice  is a co-sponsor of the conference, together with Whittier Law School, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Whittier Law School, the DU Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the Colorado Women’s Bar Association.

Dean Penelope Bryan (Whittier) included in her welcoming remarks thoughts on her conversations with Professor Kristian Miccio (Denver) about the failure of liberal theory and formal equality to capture the experience of mothers in the domestic violence context.

Now, Professor Kris Miccio is making opening remarks.  Thanks to staff and others who have made the event possible.  She is describing a conversation in which her 90-something year-old asked, “What could you possibly talk about over a day and a half about motherhood?” Professor Miccio refers to some of the accomplishments of second-wave feminism: women telling about their own experiences of being a mother; women deconstructing motherhood as an institution; remembering the activism of women who have come before us.  Professor Miccio calls for a commitment to the social, cultural and political act of “mothering” — to construct alliances across boundaries of race, class and sexual orientation.

Next up is a keynote address by independent scholar  Dr. Rickie Solinger.

The conference program is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Families, Feminism and Law | Comments Off on U Denver Conference “Motherhood: Reclaiming Our Past, Transforming Our Future”

Ms. Magazine Launches Blog

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Ms. launched a blog (here) this week.  Blog categories include Arts, Global, Health, Justice, Life, Media, “Ms.cellany,” National, and Work.

Inaugural posts that caught my eye include:

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ms. Magazine!

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminist Blogs Of Interest | Comments Off on Ms. Magazine Launches Blog

“Intentional or Knowing” Miscarriage is Criminal Homicide in Utah

Posted on March 11, 2010 by lgoodmark

Utah has joined Delaware and New York in criminalizing intentionally or knowingly caused miscarriages after a 17 year old girl asked someone to beat her until she miscarried.  The link, from Jezebel, is here.  Perhaps another option might have been to provide services or support for 17 year old pregnant girls–or better access to contraception or sex education to attempt to prevent unwanted pregnancies?

Leigh Goodmark

Share
Posted in Academia | Comments Off on “Intentional or Knowing” Miscarriage is Criminal Homicide in Utah

Deer on “Sex Trafficking of Native Women in the United States”

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Feminist Law Prof Sarah Deer (William Mitchell) has posted to SSRN her article, “Relocation Revisited: Sex Trafficking of Native Women in the United States.”  Here is the abstract:

The Trafficking Victim Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) signaled a comprehensive campaign by the United States (US) government to address the scourge of human trafficking in the US and abroad. The US rhetoric about sex trafficking suggests that the problem originates in foreign countries and/or is recent problem. Neither claim is correct. This article details the historical and legal context of sex trafficking from its origin among the colonial predecessors of the US and documents the commercial trafficking of Native women over several centuries. Native women have experienced generations of enslavement, exploitation, exportation, and relocation. Human trafficking is not just a problem of poor, underdeveloped nations but an ongoing issue in the US and Canada that ties into the growth of the sex industry in these nations, where Native women are significantly overrepresented.

The full article is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Coerced Sex, Human Trafficking | Comments Off on Deer on “Sex Trafficking of Native Women in the United States”

Joslin on “Legal Regulation of Pregnancy and Childbirth”

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Courtner Joslin (UC Davis) has posted to SSRN her encyclopedia entry, “Legal Regulation of Pregnancy and Childbirth.”   Here is the abstract:

This piece, a short entry in The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, examines the legal regulation of pregnant women. In particular, the article discusses whether and under what circumstances the state can force pregnant women to undergo unwanted medical treatments or physically restrain or punish pregnant women for engaging in otherwise legal conduct when the state believes that these interventions are necessary to protect the fetus from potential harms.

The full piece is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Reproductive Rights, Women's Health | Comments Off on Joslin on “Legal Regulation of Pregnancy and Childbirth”

“Why are women being left out of climate decision-making?”

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Ann Bartow

From this article:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group last week, but out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any climate solutions.

The group is tasked with investigating potential sources of revenue to support developing countries in their efforts to cope with the impacts of climate change and the shift to low-carbon development pathways. The Copenhagen negotiations in December called for $30 billion in climate financing for 2010 to 2012, ramping up to $100 billion annually by 2020. …

The secretary-general’s choices for the advisory group will bring intellectual energy and political gravitas. The group is chaired by U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. It includes two additional heads of state, ministers of finance, and leaders of central banks. Taking part are financier and philanthropist George Soros and economist Sir Nicholas Stern. It includes equal representation between industrialized countries and developing countries (though only two smaller, highly vulnerable developing countries). But what it does not include at all is women.

Share
Posted in Feminism and Politics, Feminism and Science, Feminism and the Environment, The Underrepresentation of Women | Comments Off on “Why are women being left out of climate decision-making?”

Don’t drink and paint signs, either.

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Bloggenpheffer | 1 Comment

“Pop culture’s suddenly full of tweeniuses – but why are they all boys?”

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Ann Bartow

That is the question addressed by Bitch magazine in this article.

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminist Blogs Of Interest | Comments Off on “Pop culture’s suddenly full of tweeniuses – but why are they all boys?”

In honor of “The Hurt Locker’s” Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director last night, and International Women’s Day, a list of pioneering women movie directors.

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Ann Bartow

From “Movie Mom” Nell Minow:

1. Penny Marshall, who started as an actress (“Laverne and Shirley”), went on to direct films that included “Awakenings,” “Big,” and “A League of Their Own.”

2. Amy Heckerling is the director of “Clueless” and the neglected gem “I Could Never Be Your Woman.”

3. Betty Thomas also started as an actress (“Hill Street Blues”) and went on to direct “The Brady Bunch” and “28 Days.”

4. Nora Ephron, the daughter of successful screenwriters, began as a writer and then went on to direct films like “Julie & Julia,” and “You’ve Got Mail.”

5. Gurinder Chadha directed the international hit “Bend it Like Beckham” as well as “What’s Cooking” and “Bride and Prejudice.”

6. Nancy Meyers also began as a writer and has gone on to direct some of the most successful movies of the last 10 years including “It’s Complicated,” “The Holiday,” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”

7. Penelope Speeris made a successful documentary about a topic considered very male — punk music — in “The Decline of Western Civilization.” That led to her directing the wildly successful “Wayne’s World.”

8. Kasi Lemmons is another actress turned director with “Eve’s Bayou” and “The Caveman’s Valentine,” starring Samuel L. Jackson.

9. Mabel Normand was one of the most gifted comic actors of the silent era and one of the first female film directors. She often worked with Charlie Chaplin.

10. Mira Nair directed “Monsoon Wedding” and the recent biopic “Amelia,” starring Hillary Swank.

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, Firsts | Comments Off on In honor of “The Hurt Locker’s” Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director last night, and International Women’s Day, a list of pioneering women movie directors.

Vulnerability, Resilience, and the State: A Feminism and Legal Theory Project Workshop:March 19 – 20, 2010 at Emory

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Vulnerability, Resilience, and the State
A Feminism and Legal Theory Project Workshop:March 19 – 20, 2010
575 Gambrell Hall
Emory University School of Law
1301 Clifton Road, Atlanta GA 30322

Friday, March 19, 2010

4:00 pm – 6:30 pm – Vulnerability and Resilience

**Barbara Woodhouse – Emory University; An Ecogenerist Model of Vulnerability, Resilience and the Responsive State
**Linda McClain – Boston University; Toward a Feminist”Social Ecology”
**Deborah Steinstra – University of Manitoba; Resisting Resilience
**Martha McCluskey – SUNY- Buffalo; Toward a Law and Economics of Resilience: From Moral Hazard and Paternalism to Bargaining Power

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm — DINNER

Saturday, March 20, 2010

9:30 am – noon – Vulnerability and the State

**Michele Landis Dauber – Stanford University; We Lost Our All
**Teemu Ruskola – Emory University; The State of Disaster
**Gwendolyn Smith – Law Literacy Foundation; More Democracy, Real Resilience: On Creating Conditions for All Citizens to Flourish
**Laura Spitz – University of Colorado; Theorizing the More Responsive State: Transcending the National Boundaries of Law

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm — LUNCH

1:30 pm – 2:45 pm – Institutions of Resilience and Repression I — Education

**Risa Lieberwitz – Cornell University; The State and Higher Education: Responding to Public or Private Interests?
**Benjamin Reiss – Emory University; Creative Writing after Virginia Tech: From Psychiatric Risk to Institutional Vulnerability

3:00 – 5:00 pm – Institutions of Resilience and Repression II – Protection

**Nancy Millar – Atlanta, Georgia; Juvenile Justice, Resilience, and the State
**Jessica Weaver – SMU; Capturing the Psychological Abuse of Children
**Daniela Kraiem, American University; Resilient Caretaking Communities: Rethinking the State of Long Term Care

Registration materials are linked here.

Share
Posted in Academia, Feminism and Law, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Feminists in Academia | Comments Off on Vulnerability, Resilience, and the State: A Feminism and Legal Theory Project Workshop:March 19 – 20, 2010 at Emory

Rigel Christine Oliveri, “Discriminatory Housing Advertisements On-Line: Lessons from Craigslist”

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Ann Bartow

The Abstract:
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to publish discriminatory housing advertisements. This has long been applied to newspapers, which have effectively screened all discriminatory housing ads from sight. However, in 1996 Congress created a loophole when it immunized website operators from liability for the content posted to their sites by third parties. Without publisher liability, websites have no incentive to screen out discriminatory housing ads. The result is that such ads are proliferating in cyberspace.

While this situation is problematic from a fair housing standpoint, it presents a valuable opportunity. For the first time in a generation discriminatory housing advertisements are out in the open and available for analysis. This article contains a comprehensive review of discriminatory housing ads appearing on the popular website craigslist, which yields a number of interesting findings, including: (1) The vast majority of those who post discriminatory on-line advertisements for housing are placed by people seeking roommates. (2) The overwhelming majority of problematic ads discriminate on the basis of familial status. There are very few that discriminate based on race, ethnicity, or religion. (3) The few roommate ads that do mention race, ethnicity, or religion are more likely to discriminate in favor of minority groups. Thus, they appear more as expressions of individual diversity of backgrounds and beliefs than exclusionary tools of a majoritarian power structure.

This information can and should inform changes to the legislative and enforcement regime for dealing with discriminatory housing advertisements. For example, we should recognize that the roommate relationship is different from traditional rental housing, and accord roommate-seekers protection from the law – protection which is currently given to small landlords (who arguably do not need it) but not co-lessees. Fair housing advocates also must address the unique problems presented by familial status as a protected category, both in terms of public awareness and acceptance of the law.

Downloadable here.

Share
Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off on Rigel Christine Oliveri, “Discriminatory Housing Advertisements On-Line: Lessons from Craigslist”

Marines to Women Soldiers: Clean Up On Aisle Seven!

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Ann Bartow

When their gender is seen as an advantage rather than a disability, suddenly it is permissible for women soldiers to assume combat roles:

… Women make up only 6 percent of the Marine Corps, which cultivates an image as the most testosterone-fueled service, and they are still officially barred from combat branches like the infantry.

But in a bureaucratic sleight of hand, used by both the Army and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan when women have been needed for critical jobs like bomb disposal or intelligence, the female engagement teams are to be”attached”to all-male infantry units within the First Marine Expeditionary Force : a source of pride and excitement for them. …

I have no doubt that the women Marines will prove themselves more than capable. But what a shame they had to wait until their gender could be tactically leveraged to get this opportunity.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Employment Discrimination, Feminism and the Workplace, If you're a woman, The Underrepresentation of Women | 4 Comments

HuffPo post asserts Stephen Colbert treated Sean Hannity “like a prostitute.”

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Ann Bartow

The post is here, along with a video clip. Below is the appalling text:

Last night Stephen Colbert sat down with Sean Hannity, who “joined [him] live from stuff [he] could edit together,” and with some crafty splicing, proceeded to turn Hannity into an aspiring prostitute.

Colbert was determined to get Hannity’s thoughts on the reports that James O’Keefe’s ACORN videos had been “heavily edited” to be deceptive. Hannity had been silent on the issue, despite being a vocal supporter of O’Keefe.

Using the same misleading tactics O’Keefe employed, Colbert quickly got what he needed out of Hannity and moved along, donning a pimp’s hat and coat. The “interview” was revealing, as Hannity was dying to get out on the streets and turn some tricks. The only thing holding him back: a lack of hooker boots and condoms.

More evidence that Supposedly Liberal Dudes view women as second class citizens. The way that Colbert frames prostitution as the most degrading thing possible is creepy and sad. And anyone who thinks legalization would make any difference in the level of contempt thrown at people who sell sex should investigate similar cultural references to women in pornography.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, Sexism in the Media, Sociolinguistics | 1 Comment

“Canada has dropped a proposal to change the country’s national anthem by making it more gender-inclusive.”

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Ann Bartow

From the BBC News:

O Canada! Our home and native land!

True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,

The true north strong and free!

The government had said it was open to changing a lyric in O Canada – “in all thy sons command” – to the original version, “in thou dost us command”.

Opposition Liberals said the proposed change was merely a gimmick that proved the ruling Conservatives were not serious about women’s rights.

Public outcry was so strong PM Stephen Harper dropped the idea after two days.

“We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear,” said Mr Harper’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas.

“They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue. The government will not proceed any further to change our national anthem.”

The issue was raised after the anthem was played a record 14 times at gold medal ceremonies during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. …

I’m a little unclear on how “public outcry” was measured, frankly. But hey, at least those evil feminists didn’t get any traction, eh?

–Ann Bartow, via Bobc

Share
Posted in Feminism and Politics, Sisters In Other Nations | 1 Comment

Virginia Is for Haters: College Edition

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Tony Infanti

The Attorney General of Virginia has sent a letter to the state’s public colleges and universities opining that the addition of “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” to their nondiscrimination policies is invalid and advising them to “take appropriate actions” to bring their policies in line with his interpretation of state law. According to the Attorney General, only the state legislature can extend nondiscrimination protections to cover sexual orientation and gender identity, which it has persistently refused to do. (The Washington Post story is here.)

Among the reactions to this news on the Post’s “Virginia Politics” blog was one from a representative of the Family Foundation who doubted that “that this would be the final straw in whether or not someone’s going to come to Virginia’s universities.” He continued, “They are some of the best universities in the country. I think they can stand on their own without this policy.” Yeah, right. And that would be because there are no other colleges and universities in the country that Virginia schools compete with for students, faculty, and staff and that do offer such protections and thus a more welcoming environment for LGBT individuals? Way to shoot yourself in the foot in the middle of the race to compete for the best and the brightest.

-Tony Infanti

Share
Posted in LGBT Rights | Comments Off on Virginia Is for Haters: College Edition

More on the Animal Industry

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Those interested in the intersections between feminist theory and animal law saw Ann’s post (here) about pork production.  Folks also might be interested in  the Animal Blawg‘s series of guest posts by Bruce Wagman (Partner, Shiff Hardin LLP):

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Animal Law | Comments Off on More on the Animal Industry

Women’s History Month at Sarah Lawrence: The Message is in the Music: “Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music, and More”

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Women’s History Month Conference

The Message is in the Music:  Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music, and More

Twelfth Annual Women’s History Month Conference  at Sarah Lawrence College

Bronxville, New York

Friday & Saturday, March 5 & 6, 2010

Free and open to the public

Keynote speaker: Carmen Ashhurst, former president of Def Jam Recordings and Rush Communications, and author of the forthcoming book,  Selling My Brothers: The Movement, The Media and Me.

Music has long served social movements as a sound track, as a means of communication, and as its  own arena for activism. While multiple generations of feminists have used music in these ways, it has played especially vital roles for those born since the 1970s. This conference will explore the ways in which young feminists have defined and expressed politics through music and musical cultures and communities. Among the questions we will ponder are: How does music reflect sites of agreement and conflict among different groups of feminists? How have movements like Riot Grrrl and Hip Hop feminism attracted young women to feminist activism? How do young feminists’ uses of music compare with those of earlier generations?

Scheduled presentations include:

  • Emma Carmichael, Vassar College,  Female Subjectivity within Hip Hop: Rappers, Lyrics, and Performance
  • Iresha Picot, Temple University,  Doorknockers: Black Female Rappers Knockin’ on a New Intellectual Discourse
  • María Santana, University of Central Florida,  Her Sexy Stilettos Give a Women’s Point of View to Reggaeton: Ivy Queen and Latin Urban Music

The full conference schedule is available  here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, Upcoming Conferences | Comments Off on Women’s History Month at Sarah Lawrence: The Message is in the Music: “Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music, and More”

“Pig Business” – A documentary about pork production that may never be commercially released in the US

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Ann Bartow

According to this account, the documentary has been effectively censored in the U.S.:

… That’s how it’s gone with the British 2009 documentary film Pig Business. I watched this film in several 10-minute segments via YouTube (Part One) because it hasn’t been released in the U.S., primarily due to legal pressure brought upon the director (Tracy Worcester, who spent four years making the film) by the film’s main villain, Smithfield Foods. The world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield has 52,000 employees processing 27 million pigs per year in 15 countries, accruing annual sales around $12 billion. The UK’s Channel 4 ran the film last summer despite four letters from Smithfield threatening litigation, but since no U.S. insurer would back the film’s release here, it has become essentially a black-market film. Score another one for corporate censorship.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Feminism and Animal Law | Comments Off on “Pig Business” – A documentary about pork production that may never be commercially released in the US

The Rape Sieve Rule?: According to Dissent, Opinion Abrogates Every Rape Shield Statute in the Sixth Circuit

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Colin Miller

Some 35 years ago, the Michigan state legislature determined that a criminal defendant accused of rape may not introduce evidence about the victim’s past sexual behavior, because the victim’s past willingness is not relevant to the question of present consent. The majority here disagrees with that legislative determination and concludes that evidence of the victim’s promiscuity or previous willingness to engage in somewhat similar sex acts was not only relevant but was”indispensable”and”the most relevant evidence.”Moreover, because this appeal arises in the context of a habeas proceeding, the majority ultimately holds that the rape defendant has a”constitutionally protected”and”clearly established”right to introduce this evidence. In so holding, the majority effectively abrogates every rape-shield statute in this circuit….I do not believe that there is any such constitutional right to present evidence of a rape victim’s promiscuity or past willingness to engage in sex acts, nor do I believe that the majority is justified in its condemnation of the rape-shield concept. I dissent. Gagne v. Booker, 2010 WL 616436 (6th Cir. 2010) (Batchelder, J., dissenting).

I’m not sure that I agree with Judge Batchelder that the majority’s opinion in Gagne v. Booker “effectively abroagates every rape-shield statute in [the Sixth] circuit,” but it is a nasty piece of work that badly misconstrues the purposes behind the rape shield rule and its exceptions. Continue reading →

Share
Posted in Acts of Violence, Coerced Sex, Courts and the Judiciary | Comments Off on The Rape Sieve Rule?: According to Dissent, Opinion Abrogates Every Rape Shield Statute in the Sixth Circuit

Nobel Women’s Initiative – Video Stream: International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Ann Bartow

HERE! More information here.

“The Tribunal is a women-directed and women-centered justice and advocacy initiative. Judges will hear testimony from several women of Burma who will share their personal stories of surviving human rights violations and crimes under miliatry rule in Burma. Their voices, and the findings and recommendations of the judges, will be directed to the Burmese regime and the international community. The Tribunal will provide a powerful spotlight on the oppression of women of Burma in order to support the development of a just and peaceful Burma.”

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminism and Law, Feminism and Politics, Sisters In Other Nations | Comments Off on Nobel Women’s Initiative – Video Stream: International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma

Quick Reminder: Intersectionality Conference at UCLA Law, March 11-13

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Kaimipono D. Wenger

Bridget blogged about the call for papers a few months ago.  Now that the conference is just around the corner, here’s another short reminder:

The UCLA Critical Race Studies program – along with a great group of co-sponsors including the Women and Law Project at Thomas Jefferson Law School, the Women of Color Collective at UCLA, the Williams Institute, LatCrit Inc., and a dozen more – is hosting a not-to-be-missed conference on intersectionality.  Speakers include, just to name a few, Devon Carbado, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Angela Harris, Catherine MacKinnon, Mari Matsuda, Dorothy Roberts, and Patricia Williams, along with dozens of other nationally known scholars from law and from related fields, (including Feminist Law Professors founder Ann Bartow).  If you’re in the area, you should definitely make plans to attend.

More information, including schedule and registration information, is available at the conference website.  I hope to see many of you there!

-Kaimipono D. Wenger

Share
Posted in Upcoming Conferences | Comments Off on Quick Reminder: Intersectionality Conference at UCLA Law, March 11-13

“As part of the gender almost universally considered to be the most vain, I find it kind of amusing that we take it as a given that men shouldn’t have to come to terms with the penis nature gave them.”

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Ann Bartow

The post title is a quote from this Broadsheet piece (found via) which highlights an Atlantic article entitled “The Challenge of Marketing Small  Condoms,” in which one learns:

… According to the medical journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, 45 percent of men reported that they had experienced an ill-fitting condom within the last three months.

The misfits were significantly more likely to report breakage and slippage, along with difficulty reaching orgasm, both for their partners and for themselves, and a host of other sexual mishaps. Not surprisingly, men with ill-fitting condoms were more likely to take them off before sex was even over — all of which adds up to a massive failure for the one job a condom exists to fulfill.

Aside from a realistic range of sizes, there is a dizzying amount of condom variety. A non-exhaustive list: ribbed, for her/his pleasure, studded, lubricated, extra thin, scented, textured, unscented, flavored, extended pleasure, colored, with/without spermicide, glow in the dark, lamb skin, warming. But aside from the machismo-imbued “Magnum” designation, you’d be hard-pressed to find any size labels. What’s a modestly endowed guy to do? And perhaps more importantly, are the condom manufacturers being irresponsible by not being transparent in their sizing? Do they even make small condoms?

In fact, there is some size variation in condoms, but it’s couched in jargon. LifeStyles has by far the most direct code, called “Snugger Fit.” Here is a sizing chart for Durex condoms.

Trojan seems to have recalibrated its sizes a la Starbucks (and there is something appealing, if patronizing, about the idea of buying a “Tall” condom when in fact it’s the opposite). The company organizes its products by Regular, Large, and Extra Large. Ah, so the regular is actually a small? Wrong. The regular is actually regular — 35 of their 42 lines fall under this category — not exactly following the bell curve. …

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Sociolinguistics, Women's Health | Comments Off on “As part of the gender almost universally considered to be the most vain, I find it kind of amusing that we take it as a given that men shouldn’t have to come to terms with the penis nature gave them.”

Susan J. Douglas, “Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done”

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Ann Bartow

Described here. An essay by Douglas entitled “Girls Gone Anti-Feminist” that touches on the book’s themes is available here. Below is an excerpt:

… Enlightened sexism is a response, deliberate or not, to the perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism, indeed, full equality, has allegedly been achieved. So now it’s okay, even amusing, to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women. Enlightened sexism sells the line that it is precisely through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power: power that is fun, that men will not resent, and indeed will embrace. True power here has nothing to do with economic independence or professional achievement: it has to do with getting men to lust after you and other women to envy you. Enlightened sexism is especially targeted to girls and young women and emphasizes that now that they”have it all,”they should focus the bulk of their time and energy on being hot, pleasing men, competing with other women, and shopping.

Enlightened sexism is a manufacturing process that is constantly produced by the media. Its components:anxiety about female achievement; renewed and amplified objectification of young women’s bodies and faces; dual exploitation and punishment of female sexuality; dividing of women against each other by age, race and class; and rampant branding and consumerism:began to swirl around in the early 1990s, consolidating as the dark star it has become in the early 21st century. …

… Enlightened sexism is feminist in its outward appearance (of course you can be or do anything you want) but sexist in its intent (hold on, girls, only up to a certain point, and not in any way that discomfits men). While enlightened sexism seems to support women’s equality, it is dedicated to the undoing of feminism. In fact, because this equality might lead to”sameness”:way too scary:girls and women need to be reminded that they are still fundamentally female, and so must be emphatically feminine.

Thus, enlightened sexism takes the gains of the women’s movement as a given, and then uses them as permission to resurrect retrograde images of girls and women as sex objects, still defined by their appearance and their biological destiny.

Consequently, in the age of enlightened sexism there has been an explosion in makeover, matchmaking and modeling shows, a renewed emphasis on breasts (and a massive surge in the promotion of breast augmentation), an obsession with babies and motherhood in celebrity journalism (the rise of the creepy “bump patrol”), and a celebration of “opting out” of the workforce. …

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminists in Academia, Recommended Books | 2 Comments

Ceci n’est pas un cheval

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

Photo by David J. Phillip/AP

Women’s figure skating gold medalist Kim Yu-na outscored her competitors by a wide margin.  As reported by the LA Times (here) and other news outlets, here’s how 1984 men’s figure skating champion and sports announcer Scott Hamilton described Yu-na’s performance:

“Yuna is like Seabiscuit, a champion who found a way of breaking others’ will,” Hamilton said.

I liked Scott Hamilton as a skater and I (generally) like him as a commentator, but couldn’t he come up with a better comparison?  Something other than the women’s gold medalist was like a horse?  Yeah, yeah, Seabiscuit dominated horse racing, but surely Hamilton is more creative than that.

This isn’t the first time that women athletes have been compared to horses — no, wait, that horses have been considered “women athletes.”  Remember the Fox Sports list of Top Women Athletes, blogged by Ann here?  Scott Hamilton, please don’t stoop to Fox’s level.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Feminism and Sports | Comments Off on Ceci n’est pas un cheval

Nebraska Holds Hearing on “Fetal Pain” Bill Banning Later Pre-Viability Abortions

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Caitlin Borgmann

I testified yesterday in opposition to Nebraska LB 1103, which would ban abortions starting at 20 weeks after fertilization, and which contains only a very narrow health exception.   The ban is unconstitutional because, as the sponsor readily admits, it prohibits abortions before the fetus is viable.   Moreover, its extremely narrow exception unconstitutionally endangers women’s health.   Leslie Griffin (University of Houston Law Center) also testified against the bill, while Teresa Stanton Collett (University of St. Thomas Law School) testified in support.   Nebraska has the country’s only unicameral legislature, so this will be the only hearing on the bill.

At the hearing,   proponents of the bill were asked about the lack of a mental health exception.  In response to questions about a woman who is suicidal, they suggested she be treated with electroconvulsive therapy and be confined and restrained for the duration of her pregnancy, rather than be allowed access to abortion.   Meanwhile, as the hearing on LB 1103 was in progress, a committee in a nearby hearing room debated a prenatal care bill. Supposedly “pro-life” Governor Heineman has  expressed his opposition to this legislation “because it would provide taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants.”  Fetuses of “illegal immigrants” with wanted pregnancies don’t count as “unborn babies” that deserve protection?

JournalStar.com:  Legal scholars, pain experts debate abortion bill, by JoAnne Young:

A committee of the Nebraska Legislature heard from experts on constitutional law and pain management Thursday as it sifted through the question of whether the state should ban abortions as early as the 20th week of pregnancy.

Supporters and opponents of the bill (LB1103) introduced by Speaker Mike Flood filled the hearing room. For the first time, those attending had to pass through a metal detector at the door. . . .

ABC News:  Proposed Abortion Bill Focused on When Fetus Feels Pain, by Emily Ingram:

Nebraska legislators are proposing a bill on abortion that, if passed, would be the strictest in the nation and would ban most abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy.

The first public hearing on the so-called Abortion Pain Prevention Act today drew a crowd of 100, and medical and legal experts from as far away as New York City, Alaska and Boston.

The bill’s history and text is available here (click on “Introduced Copy” for text).

-Caitlin Borgmann (cross-posted at the Reproductive Rights Prof Blog)

Share
Posted in Reproductive Rights | Comments Off on Nebraska Holds Hearing on “Fetal Pain” Bill Banning Later Pre-Viability Abortions

The De-Anonymization of the Internet Begins In Earnest

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Ann Bartow

From this article entitled “Start-Up Links 65 Million IP Addresses To Users, Readies Targeting Platform”:

… [T]he company ClearSight Interactive is getting ready to launch a form of targeting based on users’ IP addresses. ClearSight, which describes IP addresses as the bridge between users’ offline and online data, has spent the last 18 months acquiring more than 100 million IP addresses — along with email addresses and postal addresses — from publishers. As of today, ClearSight Interactive believes it has collected enough data from publishers to reliably link 65 million “sticky” IP addresses — typically for people who connect to the Web using cable modems — to specific individuals, ClearSight president Tim Daly told MediaPost today during a break at the OMMA Behavioral conference. …

People’s surfing can be tracked by exploiting a browser loophole basically which lets anybody see where else a site’s visitors have been on the Internet, see e.g.  two “online target marketing services” Beencounter, and Haveyourfriendsbeenthere.

Hackers can figure out who we are. And of course Google has entered into some sort of agreement with the federal government. Soon simply a typing cadence may identify the person typing.

For those who kick it old school, at least one survey of subpoenas against anonymous Internet speakers is underway.

–Ann Bartow

Share
Posted in Feminism and Technology | Comments Off on The De-Anonymization of the Internet Begins In Earnest

The Courage of Her Evictions (Or, Working on a Night Move)

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

A recent  New York Times article on eviction and low-income black women offered the following:

“New research is showing that eviction is a particular burden on low-income black women, often single mothers, who have an easier time renting apartments than their male counterparts, but are vulnerable to losing them because their wages or public benefits have not kept up with the cost of housing.

And evictions, in turn, can easily throw families into cascades of turmoil and debt.

‘Just as incarceration has become typical in the lives of poor black men, eviction has become typical in the lives of poor black women[.]'”

While job losses and the bleak economic picture are to blame in some cases, and tenant misbehavior in others, as the article point out, evictions sometimes occur when tenants complain to authorities about housing violations, making landlords angry. Eviction in these circumstances may be a textbook case of  retaliatory eviction, which is, under certain circumstances, a defense to eviction. However, it is sometimes difficult to prove the reasons for an eviction, and, as in many legal matters, poor people of color often lack the resources to raise such defenses. Eviction appears to play a significant role in the cycle of poverty that traps some black women, but, unlike the attention given to foreclosures, evictions sometimes go unremarked and there are few bodies of data enumerating them. Indeed, one challenge to accurately counting evictions is the fact that a large number of evictions are not court-ordered:many people under the threat of eviction move before the process is completed. Some people still engage in what we in my childhood called a “night move”:moving out under cover of darkness to avoid the embarrassment of being seen by neighbors (or the landlord) when there was no hope of getting current on the rent. My aunt, with whom I lived for almost two years, was a night move professional. With her own ten children and the extra children (like me) that she often had residing with her, affordable, suitable housing was a continuous challenge. Note that engaging in a voluntary “day move” doesn’t necessarily mean that all is well in your life. My mother used to tell me stoically of the morning that she smiled and waved my father off to work, then packed her personal items and her two children to get away from an abusive relationship. My mother firmly believed that women in situations of domestic abuse did best to avoid confrontation and to disappear while the abuser was away. Sadly, some types of domestic violence “day moves” feature the removal of the entire household even when abused persons don’t wish to move out. As the New York Times article remarks, sometimes landlords evict tenants who have made domestic violence reports to police out of fear that authorities will somehow hold landlords liable for tolerating such disturbances.

As the article indicates, some temporary government programs have offered subsidies to those facing crisis in rental housing. The larger, longer term problem, however, goes unaddressed: housing represents a substantial expense even for people with middleclass incomes. This is even more true for the poor, as the cost of housing sometimes means choosing between shelter and food, clothes or medicine. To quote from the article:

“A minimum-wage worker may gross little more than $1,100 a month; a welfare recipient in Wisconsin receives $673 a month, while two-bedroom units start at about $475.

‘On $673 a month, how do you buy tennis shoes for the kids, clean shirts for school and still pay your rent?'”

-Lolita Buckner Inniss

(cross-post from Ain’t I a Feminist Legal Scholar, Too?)

Share
Posted in Feminism and Families, Race and Racism, Women and Economics | Comments Off on The Courage of Her Evictions (Or, Working on a Night Move)

Egerman on “Avoiding Confrontation”

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

A facsimile of a 15th Century Manuscript from the GERICHTLICHE ZWEIKAMPF, 1873, reproduced in HENRY C. LEA, THE DUEL AND THE OATH 154 (1878)

Mark Egerman (Staff Counsel, National Abortion Federation) has posted to SSRN his working paper, “Avoiding Confrontation,” a a feminist critique of evidence law.  Here is a portion of the abstract:

This article takes seriously Justice Scalia’s facetious aside in Giles v. California and examines whether there should be a separate confrontation doctrine for domestic violence cases. The history of Confrontation is explored, starting with one of its predecessors, the judicial duel. Dueling was used as a judicial fact-finder for centuries and developed a complex series of regulations that focused not only on accuracy, but also on the status of the participants. As the doctrine of confrontation developed, it retained some of the substantive status-oriented elements of dueling. An analysis of major cases from the Common Law and the Supreme Court tracks these developments and uncovers these elements. Modern confrontation doctrine is shown to embody non-adjudicatory elements concerned with status and social power.

These elements imagine a series of relationships between accuser and accused that do not adequately address the concerns reflected in Domestic Violence situations. Hierarchical crimes which focus on the domination of a subordinated victim present different concerns than the types of crime anticipated by our doctrine of confrontation ….The article concludes by proposing the partial unincorporation of the Confrontation Clause as it applies to victims of domestic violence in state courts.

Egerman’s article includes a discussion of the origins of the “judicial duel,” which served as a form of discovery.  Not just men dueled.  Egerman uses the illustration, above right, showing a 15th century woman dueling with a man to explore the history of women’s participation in the evidentiary process:

Some locations forbid the practice altogether. Others made  specific accommodations that resulted in a process that must rank high on  any list of bizarre judicial practices. In order to ensure a fair fight between  a man and a woman, and thus best establish the facts of the case, the man  was placed up to his navel in a pit three feet wide. The man had his left  hand tied behind his back while the woman was able to use all of her  limbs. The man was given only a club, while”his fair opponent has the  free use of her limbs and was furnished with a stone as large as the fist, or  weighting from one to five pounds, fastened in a piece of stuff.”  In at  least one jurisdiction, this procedure was limited only to accusations of  rape. These regulations reflect an interest in sex roles and the ability of  women to participate in formal evidentiary practices – specifically their  inability to participate as equals. (citations omitted)

Egerman’s full article is available here.

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Acts of Violence, Feminist Legal History, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off on Egerman on “Avoiding Confrontation”

Women and Sexual Abuse in Prison

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Bridget Crawford

The March 11, 2010 edition of the New York Review of Books contains poweful essay by David Kaiser (Chairperson, Just Detention International) and Lovisa Sannow (Executive Director, Just Detention International).   In “The Rape of American Prisoners,” Kaiser and Sannow detail a significant “crisis of sexual abuse” in juvenile detention in the U.S.   The authors rely on a report by the Texas Youth Commission, Office of the General Counsel; a report by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Ranger Division; the Bureau of Justice Statistics study of Sexual Victimization in Juvenlie Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-2009; and other works.

The statistics are staggering.   Kaiser and Sannow explain the importance and implication of the studies, as well as their deficiencies and strengths.   In describing one of the findings of the Bureau of Justice Statistics report (available here) the authors note:

Nearly 62 percent of all reported incidents of staff sexual misconduct involved female staff and male inmates. Female staff were involved in 48 percent of staff-on-inmate abuse in which the inmates were unwilling participants. The rates at which female staff seem to abuse male inmates, in jails and in juvenile detention, clearly warrant further study. Of the women in jail, 3.7 percent reported inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse; 1.3 percent of men did. Does this mean that women are more likely to abuse each other behind bars than men, or that they’re more willing to admit abuse? We don’t know:but if they’re simply more willing to admit abuse, then the BJS findings on men may have to be multiplied dramatically.

I was astounded at the rate of reported sexual abuse of male inmates by female staff members.   It illustrates that in some circumstances, women use sexual violence  as a form of domination and power over men in a way that is not so different from what men do to women.   The authors point out that it is difficult to know why female inmates are more likely than their male counterparts to be sexually abused by another inmate of the same sex.   It may be that women are more abusive of each other than men are.  

-Bridget Crawford

Share
Posted in Acts of Violence | 1 Comment