Women and the United States Constitution : history, interpretation, and practice / edited by Sibyl A. Schwarzenbach and Patricia Smith.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schwarzenbach, Sibyl A.

Smith, Patricia, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Legal status, laws, etc--United States--History.

Women.

Women's rights--United States.

Women's rights.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Equal rights amendments--United States.

Equal rights amendments.

Feminist jurisprudence--United States.

Feminist jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (415 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Women and the U.S. Constitution is about much more than the nineteenth amendment. This provocative volume incorporates law, history, political theory, and philosophy to analyze the U.S. Constitution as a whole in relation to the rights and fate of women. Divided into three parts-History, Interpretation, and Practice-this book views the Constitution as a living document, struggling to free itself from the weight of a two-hundred-year-old past and capable of evolving to include women and their concerns. Feminism lacks both a constitutional theory as well as a clearly defined theory of political legitimacy within the framework of democracy. The scholars included here take significant and crucial steps toward these theories. In addition to constitutional issues such as federalism, gender discrimination, basic rights, privacy, and abortion, Women and the U.S. Constitution explores other issues of central concern to contemporary women-areas that, strictly speaking, are not yet considered a part of constitutional law. Women's traditional labor and its unique character, and women and the welfare state, are two examples of topics treated here from the perspective of their potentially transformative role in the future development of constitutional law.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Women and Constitutional Interpretation: The Forgotten Value of Civic Friendship / Schwarzenbach, Sibyl A.

Part 1: History

The Founding Period

2. Representation of Women in the Constitution / Lewis, Jan

3. Declarations of Independence: Women and Divorce in the Early Republic / Basch, Norma

4. The Explanation Lies in Property: Gender and Its Connection to Economic Considerations / Berkin, Carol

Reconstruction

5. Women, Bondage, and the Reconstructed Constitution / Cooper Davis, Peggy

6. The Unkept Promise of the Thirteenth Amendment: A Call for Reparations / Aiyetoro, Adjoa A.

Women and the Welfare State

7. The Culture of Work Enforcement: Race, Gender and U.S. Welfare Policy / Fox Piven, Frances

8. The Silent Constitution: Affirmative Obligation and the Feminization of Poverty / Smith, Patricia

Part 2: Interpretation

The U.S. Constitution in Comparative Context

9. Federalism(s), Feminism, Families, and the Constitution / Resnik, Judith

10. What's Privacy Got to Do With It? A Comparative Approach to the Feminist Critique / Nussbaum, Martha C.

11. Women's Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution: Initiating a Dialogue / Gould, Carol C.

Privacy and Family Law

12. Battered Women, Feminist Lawmaking, Privacy, and Equality / Schneider, Elizabeth M.

13. Infringements of Women's Constitutional Rights in Religious Lawmaking on Abortion / Peach, Lucinda Joy

14. What Place for Family Privacy? / Albertson Fineman, Martha

15. The Right to Privacy and Gay/Lesbian Sexuality: Beyond Decriminalization to Equal Recognition / Richards, David A. J.

Women and Work

16. The Gender of Discrimination: Race, Sex, and Fair Employment / Boris, Eileen

17. Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach / Sturm, Susan

18. Our Economy of Mothers and Others: Women and Economics Revisited / Williams, Joan

Part 3: Practice

Citizenship and the Equal Rights Amendment

19. Women and Citizenship: The Virginia Military Institute Case / Strum, Philippa

20. "Heightened Scrutiny": An Alternative Route to Constitutional Equality for U.S. Women / Harrison, Cynthia

21. Whatever Happened to the ERA? / Mansbridge, Jane

About the Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780231502962

0231502966

OCLC:

818856900