Male-dominated law and legal knowledge essentially characterized the whole of pre-modern history in that the patriarchy represented the axis of social relations in both the private and public spheres. Indeed, modern and even contemporary law still have embedded elements of patriarchal heritage, even in the secular modern legal systems of Western developed countries, either within the content of legislation or in terms of its implementation and interpretation. This is true to a greater or lesser extent across legal systems, although the secular modern legal systems of the Western developed countries have made great advances in terms of gender equality. The traditional understanding of law has always been self-evidently dominated by men, but modern law and its understanding have also been more or less “malestreamed.” Therefore, it has become necessary to overcome the given “maskulinity” of legal thought. In contemporary legal and political orders, gender mainstreaming of law has been of the utmost importance for overcoming deeply and persistently embedded power relations and gender-based, unequal social relations. At the same time and equally importantly, the gender mainstreaming of legal education – to which this book aims to contribute – can help to gradually eliminate this male dominance and accompanying power relations from legal education and higher education as a whole. This open access textbook provides an overview of gender issues in all areas of law, including sociological, historical and methodological issues. Written for students and teachers around the globe, it is intended to provide both a general overview and in-depth knowledge in the individual areas of law. Relevant court decisions and case studies are supplied throughout the book.

Recommendations from: Elusive equality : the experiences of women in legal education.

Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities, plus an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Gender and Law: Theory, Doctrine, Commentary, Ninth Edition is organized around theoretical frameworks, showing different conceptualizations of equality and justice and their impact on concrete legal problems. The text provides complete, up-to-date coverage of conventional “women and the law” issues, including employment law and affirmative action, reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, domestic violence, rape, pornography, international women’s rights, and global trafficking. Showing the complex ways in which gender permeates the law, the text also explores the gender aspects of subject matters less commonly associated with gender, such as property, ethics, contracts, sports, and civil procedure. Throughout, the materials allow an emphasis on alternative approaches and how these approaches make a difference. Excerpted legal cases, statutes, and law review articles form an ongoing dialogue within the book to stimulate thought and discussion, and almost 250 provocative “putting theory into practice” problems challenge students to think deeply about current gender law issues. Highlights of the 9th Edition: This edition is both faithful to its original design—teaching through theoretical frameworks rather than by subject area—and cutting edge. The authors have spared no detail in covering the latest developments in this fast-changing field of study while tying them together into a cohesive whole. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a restructuring of the materials on reproductive rights, and greater attention to the reproductive justice movement and the intersectional issues raised by every issue involving reproductive health. Updated and more sustained attention to gender identity and nonbinary identities, including Bostock v. Clayton County, new material on transgender athlete bans, and a new section on sex-segregation and sex-differentiation within coed spaces (including Peltier v. Charter Day School, Inc. on sex-specific dress codes). Materials raising questions and critique about the intersection of race and gender, including historical materials that highlight the relationship between women’s suffrage advocates and abolitionists and excerpts from newer scholars. Coverage of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and its exacerbation of gender issues at work and in the home. Updated equal pay materials, revised to highlight new developments in Equal Pay Act litigation, including Rizo v. Yovino on the use of prior salary as a “factor other than sex.” Revised materials on the criminal law of rape that include material from the proposed amendment to the Model Penal Code as well as coverage of the racial stereotypes sometimes reflected in the wrongful accusation and conviction of Black men. Professors and students will benefit from: Dozens of new Putting Theory into Practice problems An updated teacher’s manual with audio and video clips from films, documentaries, news programs, and television and radio series on the book’s main substantive topics. For new teachers, the teacher’s manual is an essential resource; for more experienced teachers, the book is structured in a way that gives them lots of options for how and what to cover in the course depending on the number of credit hours and the professor’s own sense of what should be taught

"Undergraduate text on gender issues within the law"--

This book offers a new perspective on public law and public policies. The collection of papers gathered here begins with an in-depth discussion on gender perspectives in constitutional law, which can support gender justice, but also perpetuate patriarchal norms. The book then analyzes the role of the European Ombudsman in the area of gender discrimination. Despite its limited jurisdiction, this institution has become a significant complementary tool in the protection of gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination at the EU level. Particular attention is paid to the importance of mainstreaming gender into public policies. Thus, the legal and institutional frameworks of Spain and Serbia are presented, which can serve as an inspiration to other countries. Another important aspect covered in the book is an analysis of systemic differences between the average wages of women and men in the six countries of the Western Balkans. In turn, the book presents a discussion on female genital mutilation as a highly gendered crime based on extreme versions of rigid, patriarchal ethnic and religious norms and customs. It is analyzed through the lenses of the Istanbul Convention, as a tool for combating violence against women. Particular attention is paid to femicide, its definitions, forms, and phenomenological characteristics. Having been only recently acknowledged, femicide is still characterized by an inadequate judicial response in many countries. In this regard, a special focus is on German and Serbian experiences in acknowledging femicide and combating it through various measures. Finally, the importance of stalking laws is discussed, as stalking is a highly gendered crime that many states fail to combat adequately. The collection of essays offered in this book will be of interest to all those working in the field of public law, to policymakers, and to students and academics looking to broaden and deepen their research on various issues in public law and policies from gender perspectives.

"The challenge, then, is not to invent new victims or new scapegoats but to mobilize America for the future. What would it take to ensure that all of us can succeed at getting the job done, the problem solved, and the future more secure?" As a student at Yale Law School in 1974, Lani Guinier attended a class with a white male professor who addressed all the students, male and female, as "gentlemen." To him the greeting was a form of honorific, evoking the values of traditional legal education. To her it was profoundly alienating. Years later Guinier began a study of female law students with her colleagues, Michelle Fine and Jane Balin, to try to understand the frustrations of women law students in male-dominated schools. Women are now entering law schools in large numbers, but too often many still do not feel welcome. As one says, "I used to be very driven, competitive. Then I started to realize that all my effort was getting me nowhere. I just stopped caring. I am scarred forever." After interviewing hundreds of women with similar stories, the authors conclude that conventional one-size-fits-all approaches to legal education discourage many women who could otherwise succeed and, even more, fail to help all students realize their full potential as legal problem-solvers. In Becoming Gentlemen Guinier, Fine, and Balin dare us to question what it means to become qualified, what a fair goal in education might be, and what we can learn from the experience of women law students about teaching and evaluating students in general. Including the authors' original study and two essays and a personal afterword by Lani Guinier, the book challenges us to work toward a more just society, based on ideals of cooperation, the resources of diversity, and the values of teamwork.

This book raises awareness about gender perspective in political and legal theories and historical analysis. The impacts of feminist political and legal theories, as well as critical legal studies, have been embedded in all the papers in different ways and degrees. Differences among feminist political and legal ideas are visible in the different approaches. The ongoing issue of defining gender, for example, is a recurring theme in the texts. Some papers question the binary basis of the gender issue and the notion of gender as such, while others start from the binary dichotomy and attempt to expand the consideration towards a multi-dimensional understanding of gender identities. The main focus is on a feminist reconsideration of all relevant fields of legal knowledge. The primary aim is to demystify the seemingly neutral character of legal norms and legal knowledge and highlight the power relations at different layers, beginning with male and female legal subjects of Western heredity (in terms of culture, ethnicity, and race), then moving on to different needs and power relations among female persons of different races and classes, and finally addressing differentiating gender relations and identities beyond the framework of the women-men binary codification, i.e., also taking into consideration the multiple options of intersex, transgender, queering, etc. Taking seriously the issue of the “maleness” of political and legal theories is indeed a challenging and relevant endeavor for legal scholars. The male bias is present not only throughout history but also in the present, given that our “universal” categories of political and legal thought are still overburdened by unequal power relations. It is also important to open our minds and knowledge production for a gender-sensitive and gender-competent intersectional approach, which would also include various queer-, race- and class-based considerations. These tasks should be of interest not only to critical legal scholars but also all those belonging to mainstream legal and political thought.