Feminism and the Power of Law

Feminism and the Power of Law PDF Author: Carol Smart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134972830
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Author very well known - leading writer on women and law provides major new critique of law in controversial areas such as rape, pornography, child custody 2 way promotion - criminology, women's studies

Feminism and the Power of Law

Feminism and the Power of Law PDF Author: Carol Smart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134972830
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Get Book Here

Book Description
Author very well known - leading writer on women and law provides major new critique of law in controversial areas such as rape, pornography, child custody 2 way promotion - criminology, women's studies

Contesting Femicide

Contesting Femicide PDF Author: Adrian Howe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351068024
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Focusing on femicide, this book provides a contemporary re-evaluation of Carol Smart’s innovative approach to the law question as first outlined in her ground-breaking book, Feminism and the Power of Law (Routledge 1989). Smart advocated turning to the legal domain not so much for demanding law reforms as construing it as a site on which to contest gender and more particularly, gendered constructions of women’s experiences. Over the last 30 to 40 years, feminist law scholars and activists have launched scathing trans-jurisdictional critiques of the operation of provocation defences in hundreds of femicide cases. The evidence unearthed by feminist scholars that these defences operate in profoundly sexed ways is unequivocal. Accordingly, femicide cases have become critically important sites for feminist engagement and intervention across numerous jurisdictions. Exploring an area of criminal law that was not one of Smart’s own focal concerns, this book both honours and extends Smart’s work by approaching femicide as a site of engagement and counter-discourse that calls into question hegemonic representations of gendered relationships. Femicide cases thus provide a way to continue the endlessly valuable discursive work Smart advocated and practised in other fields of law: both in articulating alternative accounts of gendered relationships and in challenging law’s power to disqualify women’s experiences of violence while privileging men’s feelings and rights.

Feminism Unmodified

Feminism Unmodified PDF Author: Catharine A. MacKinnon
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674298743
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
"Catharine A. MacKinnon, noted feminist and legal scholar, explores and develops her original theories and practical proposals on sexual politics and law. These discourses, originally delivered as speeches, have been brilliantly woven into a book that retains all the spontaneity and accessibility of a live presentation. Through these engaged works on issues such as rape, abortion, athletics, sexual harassment, and pornography, MacKinnon seeks feminism on its own terms, unconstrained by the limits of prior traditions. She argues that viewing gender as a matter of sameness and difference--as virtually all existing theory and law have done--covers up the reality of gender, which is a system of social hierarchy, an imposed inequality of power"--Back cover.

Feminist Legal History

Feminist Legal History PDF Author: Tracy A. Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814784266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Attuned to the social contexts within which laws are created, feminist lawyers, historians, and activists have long recognized the discontinuities and contradictions that lie at the heart of efforts to transform the law in ways that fully serve women's interests. At its core, the nascent field of feminist legal history is driven by a commitment to uncover women's legal agency and how women, both historically and currently, use law to obtain individual and societal empowerment. Feminist Legal History represents feminist legal historians' efforts to define their field, by showcasing historical research and analysis that demonstrates how women were denied legal rights, how women used the law proactively to gain rights, and how, empowered by law, women worked to alter the law to try to change gendered realities. Encompassing two centuries of American history, thirteen original essays expose the many ways in which legal decisions have hinged upon ideas about women or gender as well as the ways women themselves have intervened in the law, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's notion of a legal class of gender to the deeply embedded inequities involved in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, a 2007 Supreme Court pay discrimination case. Contributors: Carrie N. Baker, Felice Batlan, Tracey Jean Boisseau, Eileen Boris, Richard H. Chused, Lynda Dodd, Jill Hasday, Gwen Hoerr Jordan, Maya Manian, Melissa Murray, Mae C. Quinn, Margo Schlanger, Reva Siegel, Tracy A. Thomas, and Leti Volpp

Law, Crime and Sexuality

Law, Crime and Sexuality PDF Author: Carol Smart
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9781446231029
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Law, crime, and sexuality transcends the traditional fragmentation of sociology, criminology, socio-legal studies, and feminist theory and philosophy. It enables readers to draw on aspects from each discipline and see how various themes and discussions are related. Compiled specifically for students' needs, the essays show that theory need not be too hard or too inaccessible, and help students to understand the law in conceptual terms while enabling them to become fully aware of the extent to which the law is implicated in our everyday lives.

Gender, Power, and Representations of Cree Law

Gender, Power, and Representations of Cree Law PDF Author: Emily Snyder
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774835710
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Drawing on the insights of Indigenous feminist legal theory, Emily Snyder examines representations of Cree law and gender in books, videos, graphic novels, educational websites, online lectures, and a video game. Although these resources promote the revitalization of Cree law and the principle of miyo-wîcêhtowin (good relations), Snyder argues that they do not capture the complexities of gendered power dynamics. The majority of the resources either erase women’s legal authority by not mentioning them, or they diminish women’s agency by portraying them primarily as mothers and nurturers. Although these latter roles are celebrated, Snyder argues that Cree laws and gender roles are represented in inflexible, aesthetically pleasing ways that overlook power imbalances and difficult questions regarding interpretations of tradition. What happens when good relations are represented in ways that are oppressive? Grappling with this question, Snyder makes the case that educators need to critically engage with issues of gender and power in order to create inclusive resources that meaningfully address the everyday messiness of law. As with all legal orders, gendered oppression can be perpetuated through Cree law, but Cree law is also a dynamic resource for challenging gendered oppression.

The Feminist War on Crime

The Feminist War on Crime PDF Author: Aya Gruber
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520973143
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Many feminists grapple with the problem of hyper-incarceration in the United States, and yet commentators on gender crime continue to assert that criminal law is not tough enough. This punitive impulse, prominent legal scholar Aya Gruber argues, is dangerous and counterproductive. In their quest to secure women’s protection from domestic violence and rape, American feminists have become soldiers in the war on crime by emphasizing white female victimhood, expanding the power of police and prosecutors, touting the problem-solving power of incarceration, and diverting resources toward law enforcement and away from marginalized communities. Deploying vivid cases and unflinching analysis, The Feminist War on Crime documents the failure of the state to combat sexual and domestic violence through law and punishment. Zero-tolerance anti-violence law and policy tend to make women less safe and more fragile. Mandatory arrests, no-drop prosecutions, forced separation, and incarceration embroil poor women of color in a criminal justice system that is historically hostile to them. This carceral approach exacerbates social inequalities by diverting more power and resources toward a fundamentally flawed criminal justice system, further harming victims, perpetrators, and communities alike. In order to reverse this troubling course, Gruber contends that we must abandon the conventional feminist wisdom, fight violence against women without reinforcing the American prison state, and use criminalization as a technique of last—not first—resort.

Feminist Legal Theory (Second Edition)

Feminist Legal Theory (Second Edition) PDF Author: Nancy Levit
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479882801
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
"In the completely updated second edition of this outstanding primer, Nancy Levit and Robert R.M. Verchick introduce the diverse strands of feminist legal theory and discuss an array of substantive legal topics, pulling in recent court decisions, new laws, and important shifts in culture and technology. The book centers on feminist legal theories, including equal treatment theory, cultural feminism, dominance theory, critical race feminism, lesbian feminism, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism. Readers will find new material on women in politics, gender and globalization, and the promise and danger of expanding social media. Updated statistics and empirical analysis appear throughout. At its core, Feminist Legal Theory shows the importance of the roles of law and feminist legal theory in shaping contemporary gender issues"--Unedited summary from book cover.

Feminism and Power

Feminism and Power PDF Author: Mary Caputi
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739175807
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory is a six-chapter manuscript which offers an important critique of “power feminism.” The latter, having produced such spinoffs as “grrrl power,” “choice,” “babe,” “lipstick,” and “stiletto” feminisms, encourages women to be strong, self-sufficient, feisty, and independent. While I have no argument with much of that tough-minded ideal, I ask whether this “brave new girl” doesn’t too readily acquiesce in a neo-liberal ideology whose underlying tenets derive from American rugged individualism. At its worst, this strain within Third Wave feminism contains no critique of capitalism, no distance on neoliberal theory, no effort to address the injustices contained in globalization’s asymmetries and the industrialized North’s exploitation of developing countries. Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory therefore argues that the critical theories of Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida have much to offer feminism, and a feminist understanding of female empowerment. Its pages rely on Adorno’s assertion that it is only by allowing the sufferer to speak that we can unveil social truth rather than be duped by the bravado of victory culture. Similarly, it demonstrates how Derrida’s insistence on the trace, as well as the asymmetries of friendship and hospitality, lead feminism away from the perils of contented triumphalism. The book promotes listening as a paradigmatic feminist gesture, rather than always speaking up and out.

Feminism, Media, and the Law

Feminism, Media, and the Law PDF Author: Martha Fineman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195096290
Category : Feminism
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Drawing on a striking array of sources, this book presents a collection of essays by leading scholars and activists that explore how the media represents and constructs gender, law, and feminism. Topics include hate radio, Anita Hill, popular women's magazines, and the portrayal of women in film and television.