The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States

"Earlier. While the term "feminist" was not used in the United States until the 1910s, the foundations of feminist legal theory were first conceptualized as early as 1848 and developed over the next one hundred and fifty years. This chapter traces that development. It begins with the establishment of the core theoretical precepts of gender and equality grounded in the surprisingly comprehensive philosophy of the nineteenth-century's first women's rights movement ignited at Seneca Falls. It then shows how feminist legal theory was popularized and advanced by the political activism of the women's suffrage movement, even as suffragists limited the feminist consensus to one based on women's maternalism. Progressive feminism then expanded the theoretical framework of feminist theory in the early twentieth century, encapsulating ideas of global peace, market work, and sex rights of birth control. In the modern era, legal feminists gravitated back to pragmatic and concrete ideas of formal equality, and the associated legalisms of equal rights and equal protection. Yet through each of these periods, the two common imperatives were to place women at the center of analysis and to recognize law as a fundamental agent of change"-- Provided by publisher Cover The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States Copyright Contents Contributors Introduction Part I: Theory, Connections, and Criticisms 1. The Long History of Feminist Legal Theory 2. Liberal Feminist Jurisprudence: Foundational, Enduring, Adaptive 3. Dominance Feminism: Placing Sexualized Power at the Center 4. A Relational Approach to Law and Its Core Concepts 5. A Genealogy of Intersectionality 6. Sex- Positive Feminism’s Values in Search of the Law of Pleasure 7. Feminism is Dead, Long Live Feminisms: A Postmodern Take on The Road to Gender Equality 8. Gender Disruption, Amelioration, and Transformation: A Comparative Perspective 9. When Queer Theory Goes to Law School 10. Masculinities Theory as Impetus for Change in Feminism and Law 11. Governance Feminism and Distributional Analysis 12. The Equal Rights Amendment, Then and Now 13. The Anti- Rape and Battered Women’s Movements of the 1970s 14. The Title IX Movement Against Campus Sexual Harassment: How a Civil Rights Law and a Feminist Movement Inspired Each Other 15. Feminism and #MeToo: The Power of the Collective 16. From Reproductive Rights to Reproductive Justice: Abortion in Constitutional Law and Politics 17. Law and Economics Against Feminism 18. Backlash Against Feminism: Rethinking a Loaded Concept Part II: Feminist Influence on Law 19. Sexual Harassment: The Promise and Limits of a Feminist Cause of Action 20. Degendering the Law Through Stereotype Theory 21. Beyond Battered Women’s Syndrome 22. Title IX: Separate but Equal for Girls and Women in Athletics 23. Consent, Rape, and the Criminal Law 24. Pregnancy and Work: 50 Years of Legal Theory, Litigation, and Legislation 25. Constitutionalizing Reproductive Rights (and Justice) 26. Disputed Conceptions of Motherhood 27. Applying International Feminist Insights to Gendered Violence in the United States 28. Feminism’s Transformation of Legal Education and Unfinished Agenda 29. Feminist Judging: Theories and Practices 30. Contract’s Influence on Feminism and Vice Versa 31. Feminism, Privacy, and Law in Cyberspace 32. Environmental Law and Feminism 33. Reconceptualizing the Terms and Conditions of Entry to the United States: A Feminist Reimagining of Immigration Law 34. Invisible Women and Intangible Property: A Feminist Consciousness Raising for Authors and Inventors 35. A Taxing Feminism 36. Tort Law and Feminism Index Combining analyses of feminist legal theory, legal doctrine, and feminist social movements, The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States offers a comprehensive overview of U.S. legal feminism. Contributions by leading feminist thinkers trace the impacts of legal feminism on legal claims and defenses and demonstrate how feminism has altered and transformed understandings of basic legal concepts, from sexual harassment and gender equity in sports to new conceptions of consent and motherhood. Its chapters connect legal feminism to adjacent intellectual discourses, such as masculinities theory and queer theory, and scrutinize criticisms and backlash to feminism from all sides of the political spectrum. Its examination of the prominent brands of feminist legal theory shows the links and divergences among feminist scholars, highlighting the continued relevance of established theories (liberal, dominance, and relational feminism) and the increased importance of new intersectional, sex-positive, and postmodern approaches. Unique in its triple focus on theory, doctrine, and social movements, the Handbook recounts the history of activist struggles to pass the Equal Right Amendment, the Anti-Rape and Battered Movements of the 1970s, the contemporary movements for reproductive justice and against campus sexual assault, as well as the #MeToo movement. The emphasis on theory and feminist practice animates discussions of feminist legal pedagogy and feminist influences on judges and judicial decision making. Chapters on emerging areas of law ripe for feminist analysis explore foundational subjects such as contracts, tax, and tort law, and imagine feminist and social justice approaches to digital privacy and intellectual property law, environmental law, and immigration law. The Handbook provides a broad picture of the intellectual landscape and allows both new and established scholars to gain an in-depth understanding of the full range of feminist influence on U.S. law. This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.