Legal Studies 297WL - ST- Women & the Law

Fall
2021
01
4.00
Jennifer Nye

TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM

UMass Amherst
17041
Herter Hall room 225
jlnye@history.umass.edu
15562
This course examines the legal status of women in the United States, focusing specifically on the 20th and 21st centuries. How has the law used gender, sex, sexuality, and race to legally enforce inequality between women and men (and among women)? We will examine the legal arguments feminists have used to advocate for legal change and how these arguments have changed over time, paying specific attention to debates about whether to make legal arguments based on formal equality, substantive equality, liberty, or privacy. We will also consider the pros and cons of using the law to advocate for social justice. Specific issues that may be covered include the civil and political participation of women (voting, jury service), employment discrimination, intimate relationships, reproduction, contraception and abortion, violence against women, women as criminal defendants, and women as law students, lawyers, and judges.

This course is open to Senior, Junior, and Sophomore Legal Studies majors only. Pre Req: LEGAL 250 Previous law-related and/or gender/sexuality coursework helpful, but not required.

Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.