Boundaries of Her Body: A Troubling History of Women's Rights in America

In this masterful treatise, legal journalist Rowland analyzes how women's rights have, and have not, evolved since the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620 (though the bulk of the book covers just the 20th century). From time immemorial, women were perceived as having the singular mission of bearing and raising children, says Rowland, who documents the consequences of this view: until the late 19th century, women's rights derived from husbands, fathers and sons. It was believed that their biology made women incapable of thinking rationally—hence they could not own property, vote or work as many hours or for as much pay as men. Nor could they have sex not aimed at procreation without social and legal opprobrium. Rowland documents how a legal "zone of privacy" granted men as far back as the 1620s didn't accrue to women until 1965, when the Supreme Court legalized contraception. Drawing on legal and historical sources as well as the Bible, the journals of Meriwether Lewis and Lolita, Rowland covers every imaginable aspect of women's legal lives, up to the present day. This massive and remarkable history is well written in smart yet accessible language and is thus the perfect book for the classroom as well as the family room.(From Publishers Weekly. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) Whatever your political beliefs, if you are a woman, you must know what the law says about you.The Boundaries of Her Body is the definitive history of the cycle of advances and setbacks that characterizes women’s rights in America. Author Debran Rowland covers emotionally charged issues with thoughtful detail, offering insight into the strategies used by politicians and lobbyists to defeat long-standing law.The defeat for women’s rights is an emotional and often polarized debate: a debate over what a woman is, what a woman ought to be, and what a woman should, therefore, be allowed to do.Today, the future of women’s rights is in jeopardy.“If I had to guess at the future for women, I would say we stand to lose many more significant battles—and the rights that go with them—if we don’t begin to abandon the niceties of a comfortable life with educated opinions and start waging the kind of aggressive, no-holds-barred guerrilla war that our opponents have been riding to victory.”—from the Epilogue to The Boundaries of Her BodyRowland combines provocative arguments with exhaustive research and affirms that, in spite of advancements, the boundaries of women’s bodies will continue to be a source of bitter contention in the law.“Debran Rowland brilliantly argues the continuing inequality of women’s rights in America with the most meticulous and comprehensive research in our times.”—Betty Friedanauthor of The Feminine Mystique In this masterful treatise, legal journalist Rowland analyzes how women's rights have, and have not, evolved since the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620 (though the bulk of the book covers just the 20th century). From time immemorial, women were perceived as having the singular mission of bearing and raising children, says Rowland, who documents the consequences of this view: until the late 19th century, women's rights derived from husbands, fathers and sons. It was believed that their biology made women incapable of thinking rationallyhence they could not own property, vote or work as many hours or for as much pay as men. Nor could they have sex not aimed at procreation without social and legal opprobrium. Rowland documents how a legal "zone of privacy" granted men as far back as the 1620s didn't accrue to women until 1965, when the Supreme Court legalized contraception. Drawing on legal and historical sources as well as the Bible, the journals of Meriwether Lewis and Lolita, Rowland covers every imaginable aspect of women's legal lives, up to the present day. This massive and remarkable history is well written in smart yet accessible language and is thus the perfect book for the classroom as well as the family room. (From Publishers Weekly. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) Annotation A detailed survey of the history of women's rights and how the biology of a woman has controlled her legal rights for centuries By Debran Rowland. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.