A comprehensive encyclopedia tracing the history of the women's rights movement in the United States from the American Revolution to the present day. Few realize that the origin of the discussion on women's rights emerged out of the anti-slavery movement of the 19th century, and that suffragists were active in the peace and labor movements long after the right to vote was granted. Thus began the confluence of activism in our country, where the rights of women both followed—and led—the social and political discourse in America. Through 4 volumes and more than 800 entries, editor Tiffany K. Wayne, with advising editor Lois Banner, examine the issues, people, and events of women's activism, from the early period of American history to the present time. This comprehensive reference not only traces the historical evolution of the movement, but also covers current issues affecting women, such as reproductive freedom, political participation, pay equity, violence against women, and gay civil rights.

2005 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title The first book-length study of American statutory rape laws, Jailbait investigates the double-edged nature of legislation aimed at both protecting and punishing adolescent sexuality. Carolyn Cocca explores how, throughout the history of the United States, the regulation of sexual behavior was seized upon as a means to alleviate larger problems, be they moral, social, political, or economic. Feminists, religious conservatives, and legislators, each with their own agendas, have at times both conflicted and cooperated over legislation, leading to uneasy compromises that play out in the ways in which the laws are implemented today. Using both detailed case studies and quantitative analysis, Jailbait examines important changes made to statutory rape laws since the 1970s, including prosecutions under the laws. Among the more surprising findings is that changes to statutory rape laws were sometimes made in opposition to prevailing public opinion, contrary to previous studies that have asserted morality policy is especially responsive to public opinion.

Law and Society is written to be highly accessible to the average undergraduate student. This multidisciplinary text draws on the work of anthropologists, historians, law professors, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists to clearly outline how law is an essential social institution that shapes society, while also being shaped by it.

Questions of evidence and proof are fundamental to the operation of substantive law and to our understanding of law as a social practice. The study of evidence involves issues of central concern to feminist scholars,including matters of epistemology, psychology, allocation of risk and responsibility. Debates about evidence, like debates about feminism, involve questioning ideas of rationality and truth, as well as claims to knowledge both by and about men and women. Social constructions of gender are reflected both explicitly and implicitly in evidential rules and in the way in which evidence is received and understood by judges, jurors and magistrates. Feminist evidence scholarship is a relatively new but rapidly developing field. This collection brings together previously unpublished work by feminist legal scholars from different jurisdictions. In these essays, they explore the contributions of feminist theory and methodology to the understanding of the law of evidence.