Authors: Michelle Jacobs, Nancy Dowd (Editor), Michelle S. Jacobs
ISBN-13: 9780814719121, ISBN-10: 0814719120
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: New York University Press
Date Published: January 2003
Edition: (Non-applicable)
NANCY E. DOWD is Professor of Law, University Research Foundation Professor and Trustee Research Scholar at the University of Florida and author of In Defense of Single-Parent Families (also available from NYU Press).
Michelle S. Jacobs is Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Feminist Legal Theory is a groundbreaking collection of feminist work proceeding from the core assumption that the differences among women are essential to feminist analysis. Rather than presenting feminist legal theory sequentially, with "African American feminism" or "critical race feminism" added on at the end, the volume thoroughly integrates key readings from non-white, non-middle class, and non-mainstream writers throughout.
The volume explores the intersections of race, class, and gender in such areas as theory, family, work and economic issues, and violence against women. Each section of the book begins with an introduction providing context and insights into how the particular pieces included challenge norms and create new paradigms. This vibrant, challenging collection of work by a broad range of authors represents the cutting edge of feminist theory in concrete applications essential to gender equality.
Contributors include: Patricia Hill Collins, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Angela P. Harris, Sylvia A. Law, Mari Matsuda, Martha Minow, Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, john a. powell, Jenny Rivera, and Maxine Baca Zinn.
Introduction | 1 | |
Introduction | 5 | |
Pt. I | Theories, Strategies, and Methodologies | 9 |
1 | The Future of Feminist Legal Theory | 14 |
2 | Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism | 20 |
3 | Autonomy, Aspiration, and Accomplishment: Some Steps and Barriers to Equality for Women | 26 |
4 | The Multiple Self: Exploring between and beyond Modernity and Postmodernity | 34 |
5 | The Development of Feminist Consciousness among Asian American Women | 42 |
6 | At the Intersection of Gender and Sexual Orientation: Toward Lesbian Jurisprudence | 49 |
7 | The LatIndia and Mestizajes: Of Cultures, Conquests, and LatCritical Feminism | 56 |
8 | White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies | 63 |
9 | Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy: Legal Theory Out of Coalition | 73 |
10 | Feminist Methods in International Law | 78 |
11 | Turning the Gaze Back on Itself: Comparative Law, Feminist Legal Studies, and the Postcolonial Project | 86 |
Pt. II | Women's Work and Wealth | 93 |
12 | Implementing Antiessentialism: How Gender Wars Turn into Race and Class Conflict | 96 |
13 | Spiritual and Menial Housework | 110 |
14 | Toward a Global Critical Feminist Vision: Domestic Work and the Nanny Tax Debate | 122 |
15 | (Dis)Assembling Rights of Women Workers along the Global Assembly Line: Human Rights and the Garment Industry | 136 |
16 | Commercial Sex: Beyond Decriminalization | 145 |
17 | Working without a Job: The Social Messages of the New Workfare | 151 |
18 | Equality, of the Right Sort | 159 |
19 | African-American Women and Economic Justice: A Preliminary Analysis of Wealth, Family, and African-American Social Class | 165 |
20 | How Should Human Rights and Development Respond to Cultural Legitimization of Gender Hierarchy in Developing Countries? | 175 |
Pt. III | Women, Children, Well-Being, and the State | 189 |
21 | Family, Feminism, and Race in America | 193 |
22 | Cracking the Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, and Self-Sufficiency | 200 |
23 | Children's Rights | 207 |
24 | Coercing Privacy | 213 |
25 | In Defense of Single-Parent Families | 219 |
26 | From Madonna to Proletariat: Constructing a New Ideology of Motherhood in Welfare Discourse | 226 |
27 | We Will Get What We Ask For: Why Legalizing Gay and Lesbian Marriage Will Not "Dismantle the Legal Structure of Gender in Every Marriage" | 233 |
28 | "The Past Never Vanishes": A Contextual Critique of the Existing Indian Family Doctrine | 239 |
29 | Transracial and International Adoption: Mothers, Hierarchy, Race, and Feminist Legal Theory | 252 |
30 | Gender Matters: Implications for Clinical Research and Women's Health Care | 260 |
31 | The Fuzzy Logic of Race and Gender in the Mismeasure of Asian American Women's Health Needs | 266 |
32 | Representing Race: Unshackling Black Motherhood | 271 |
33 | Blaming Culture for Bad Behavior | 279 |
34 | Bridges and Barricades: Rethinking Polemics and Intransigence in the Campaign against Female Circumcision | 285 |
Pt. IV | Women and Violence: Individuals, the State, and Other Actors | 291 |
35 | Gender, Violence, Race, and Criminal Justice | 295 |
36 | Multiple Masculinities: A New Vision for Same-Sex Harassment Law | 306 |
37 | "It's like Living in Black Hole": Women of Color and Solitary Confinement in the Prison Industrial Complex | 316 |
38 | The Shame of It: Gender-Based Terrorism in the Former Yugoslavia and the Failure of International Human Rights Law to Comprehend the Injuries | 326 |
39 | Commercial Sex: Beyond Decriminalization | 339 |
40 | Converging Stereotypes in Racialized Sexual Harassment: Where the Model Minority Meets Suzie Wong | 343 |
41 | The Violence Against Women Act and the Construction of Multiple Consciousness in the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements | 352 |
42 | Cultural Evidence and Male Violence: Are Feminist and Multicultural Reformers on a Collision Course in Criminal Courts? | 360 |
43 | Ignoring the Sexualization of Race: Heteronormativity, Critical Race Theory, and Anti-Racist Politics | 371 |
44 | Requiring Battered Women Die: Murder Liability for Mothers under Failure to Protect Statutes | 376 |
45 | Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Feminist Responses to Violent Injustice | 383 |
46 | Enhancing Autonomy for Battered Women: Lessons from Navajo Peacemaking | 389 |
Permissions | 405 | |
About the Contributors | 411 | |
Index | 415 |