Gender, Law & Politics 46.3200
Susan E. Gallagher, Associate Professor, Political Science
1. The Legal Construction of Gender in the United States
Marilynn Salmon, "The Legal Status of Women, 1776-1830," History Now, March 2006.
Susan E. Gallagher, "Gender," Encyclopedia of Privacy, edited by William G. Staples with advisory editors David J. Brown, Susan E. Gallagher, and Jill Joline Myers (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007).
Bradwell v. Illinois (1872), upheld exclusion of women from legal practice.
Muller v. Oregon (1908), permitted sex discrimination in employment.
Background: Eric Foner, "The Reconstruction Amendments: Official Documents as Social History," History Now (Gilder-Lehrman Institute, no date). Ian Milhiser, "The Troubled History Of The Constitution’s Most Important Amendment," Think Progress, July 9, 2015. Brett Parker, "What Level of Legal Scrutiny Should Sexual Orientation-Based Classifications Receive?," Stanford Political Journal, January 19, 2015.
Readings
Deborah M.S. Brown, "The Long Struggle for Women's Suffrage," U.S. Dept. of State, Learn North Carolina.
The Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), Fordham University.
Susan E. Gallagher, Women's Suffrage and the Making of the White American Home, UMass Lowell.
Susan B. Anthony, "On Women's Right to Vote (1873)," The History Place.
Monee Fields White, "Women's Suffrage and Racism: Ida B. Wells vs. Frances Willard," The Root, March 25, 2011.
3. 2nd Wave Feminism: A Struggle for Personal Liberation
Readings
Excerpt from Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963).
Equal Pay Act of 1963, Equal Opportunity Commission.
National Organization for Women (NOW), Statement of Purpose (1966).
Stonewall Rebellion: Jerry Lisker, "Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad," New York Daily News, July 6, 1969.
Gloria Steinem, "Women's Liberation Aims to Free Men Too," Washington Post, June 7, 1970.
Meritor Savings v. Vinson (1986), defined liability in cases of sexual harassment.
4. The Public/Private Dichotomy in the 20th Century
Readings
Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, "The Right to Privacy," Harvard Law Review (1890). Read introductory essay and main text.
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), summary and contextual notes, PBS. A History of Key Abortion Rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, Pew Research Center.
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), held that the right to privacy does not extend to same-sex sexual relationships.
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (1996), banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages, FindLaw.
Romer v. Evans (1996), prohibited states from enacting laws designed to discriminate against gay and lesbian people, "The Gay Rights Ruling," summary and excerpts, New York Times, May 21, 1996.
5. Gender, Race & Justice
Readings
Ida B. Wells, "Lynch Law," 1893.
Loving v. Virginia (1967), overturned state laws against interracial marriage.
Michelle Alexander, “The New Jim Crow: How Mass Incarceration Turns People of Color into Permanent Second-Class Citizens,” American Prospect, December 6, 2010.
Michelle Alexander, "Telling My Son about Ferguson," Op-Ed, New York Times, November 26, 2014.
Alicia Garza, "A HerStory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement," Black Lives Matter.
6. Gender and the Expansion of Civil Rights in the 21st Century
Readings
Lawrence v. Texas (2003), overturned Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) by including same-gender sexual activity within a general right to privacy.
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2003), held that prohibiting same-gender marriage violates constitutional protection of equal treatment under law: "The Goodridge Decision and the Right to Marry," Massachusetts Law Review.
"Why 6 federal judges struck down state gay marriage bans, in their own words," Washington Post, February 27, 2014.
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), overturned state laws against same-gender marriage: Adam Liptak, "Supreme Court Ruling Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right," New York Times, June 26, 2015.
Eric Eckholm and Alan Blinder, "Federal Transgender Bathroom Access Blocked by Judge," New York Times, August 22, 2016.
Readings
Barbara Winslow, "The Impact of Title IX," History Now 23 (Spring 2010), Gilder Lehrman Institute.
Jeannie Suk Gersen, "College Students Go to Court over Sexual Assault," The New Yorker, August 5, 2016.
Alia Wong, "Why the Prevalence of Campus Sexual Assault Is So Hard to Quantify,"The Atlantic, January 26, 2016.
Kate Manne and Jason Stanley, "When Free Speech Becomes a Political Weapon," Chronicle of Higher Education, November 13, 2015.
U.S. Dept. of Education, Civil Rights Division, Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students, May 13, 2016. Paula Blank, "Will 'Cisgender' Survive?," The Atlantic, September 24, 2014.
