At the Boundaries of Law (RLE Feminist Theory) : Feminism and Legal Theory

Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women s roles, identities, and rights. At the Boundaries of the Law is a timely and path-breaking work that provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women s lives. Together the essays examine the fertile and radically revisionary links between feminism and legal theory. But At the Boundaries of the Law rejects the abstract grand theorizing of traditional feminist legal theory, focusing instead on the concrete and material implications of the legal injustices endured by women. These essays emphasise the complex diversity of female experience, collectively arguing for legal theory and practice that both recognises and accommodates the concept of difference in gender, class, race and sexual orientation. At the Boundaries of the Law also raises provocative questions about the methodology and future of feminist legal theory itself. In its rich variety of issues and approaches, this volume will command the interest not only of legal theorists, but of those interested in women s studies, philosophy, politics, sociology and history. It is sure to set the future agenda for scholars, policymakers and anyone concerned with the role of law in society. AT THE BOUNDARIES OF LAW Feminism and Legal Theory Copyright AT THE BOUNDARIES OF LAW FEMINISM AND LEGAL THEORY Copyright Acknowledgments Contents Introduction I. Perspectives from the Personal 1. Reasonable Women and the Law 2. On Being the Object of Property 3. Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes:Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G II. The Construction of Body in Law 4. The Body in Legal Theory 5. Intimacy and Responsibility: What Lesbians Do 6. Fallen Angels: The Representation of Violence Against Women in Legal Culture III. Recognizing Pleasures and Pains 7. The Difference in Women’s Hedonic Lives: A Phenomenological Critique of Feminist Legal Theory 8. Feminism, Sexuality and Authenticity 9. The Problem of Privatized Injuries: Feminist Strategies for Litigation IV. Recasting Women’s History 10. The Unbroken Circle: A Historical Study of Black Single Mothers and Their Families 11. Religion and Rights Consciousness in the Antebellum Woman’s Rights Movement 12. Social Feminism and Legal Discourse, 1908-1923 V. Perspectives on Marriage and Family 13. Homework and Women’s Rights: The Case of the Vermont Knitters, 1980-1985 14. Abandoned Women 15. Societal Factors Affecting the Creation of Legal Rules for Distribution of Property at Divorce VI. Feminist Strategies Within Legal Institutions 16. Feminism and Legal Method: The Difference It Makes 17. The Dialectics of Rights and Politics:Perspectives From the Women’s Movement 18. Strategizing In Equality References Books and Articles Cases Notes on Contributors