1st Edition

Women and the American Legal Order

Edited By Karen Maschke Copyright 1997

    Multidisciplinary focus
    Surveying many disciplines, this anthology brings together an outstanding selection of scholarly articles that examine the profound impact of law on the lives of women in the United States. The themes addressed include the historical, political, and social contexts of legal issues that have affected women's struggles to obtain equal treatment under the law. The articles are drawn from journals in law, political science, history, women's studies, philosophy, and education and represent some of the most interesting writing on the subject.

    The law in theory and practice
    Many of the articles bring race, social, and economic factors into their analyses, observing, for example, that black women, poor women, and single mothers are treated by the wielders of the power of the law differently than middle class white women. Other topics covered include the evolution of women's legal status, reproduction rights, sexuality and family issues, equal employment and educational opportunities, domestic violence, pornography and sexual exploitation, hate speech, and feminist legal thought. A valuable research and classroom aid, this series provides in-depth coverage of specific legal issues and takes into account the major legal changes and policies that have had an impact on the lives of American women.

    Series Introduction, Volume Introduction, Constitutionality of Discrimination Based on Sex, The Negro Woman's Stake in the Equal Rights Amendment, Invisible Women: The Legal Fiction of Marital Unity in Nineteenth-Century America, The Equality Crisis: Some Reflections on Culture, Courts, and Feminism, The Legal Status of Women in Early America: A Reappraisal, The Emerging Legal History of Women in the United States: Property, Divorce, and the Constitution, Unthinking ERA Thinking: A Review of Why We Lost the ERA, Conjugal Bonds and Wage Labor: Rights of Contract in the Age of Emancipation, Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears, Black Women and the Constitution: Finding Our Place, Asserting Our Rights, Matrimonial Bonds: Slavery and Divorce in Nineteenth-Century America, From Three-Fifths to Zero: Implications of the Constitution for African-American Women, 1787–1870, Women's Rights and the Limits of Constitutional Doctrine, Equality Challenged: Equal Rights and Sexual Difference, Acknowledgments

    Biography

    about the editor
    Karen J. Maschke
    holds a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University. Her area of specialization in public law, with a concentration on women and the law. She is the author of Litigation, Courts, and Women Workers (Praeger, 1989) and has published articles concerning women's legal rights. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the national Endowment for the Humanities.