Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T07:35:00.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Law's Patriarchy

Review products

Zillah R. Eisenstein, The Female Body and the Law. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. 235 pp.

Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. 330 pp. $25.00.

Carol Smart, Feminism and the Power of Law. London: Routledge, 1989. 180 pp.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Review Essay
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I want to thank Paul Brest, Mary Becker, Lawrence Friedman, Robert Gordon, Lauren Robel, Morrison Torrey, Robert Weisberg, and Robin West for their helpful comments on drafts of this essay, and to the Chicago Feminist law teachers and friends for their help with the final draft. The essay is dedicated to the memory of my mother, who introduced me to feminism.

References

References

BACKHOUSE, Constance (1988) “Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada,” 6 Law and History Review 215.Google Scholar
BECK, Melinda, et al. (1990) “Trading Places,” Newsweek, 16 July 1990, 48.Google Scholar
BECKER, Mary (1989) “Politics, Differences, and Economic Rights,” 1989 University of Chicago Legal Forum 169.Google Scholar
BECKER, Mary (1990) “Inequality, Sexual Politics, and the Constitution” (draft manuscript on file with author).Google Scholar
BENDER, Leslie (1988) “A Lawyer's Primer on Feminist Theory and Tort,” 38 Journal of Legal Education 3.Google Scholar
BORDO, Susan (1990) “Feminism, Postmodernism, and Gender-Skepticism,” in Nicholson, L. J. (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
CAIN, Patricia (1990) “Feminist Jurisprudence: Grounding the Theories,” 4 Berkeley Women's Law Journal (1990).Google Scholar
CHUSED, Richard (1983) “Married Women's Property Law: 1800–1850,” 71 Georgetown Law Journal 1359.Google Scholar
COHEN, S. (1988) “It's All Right for You to Talk: Political and Sociological Manifestos for Social Work Action,” in S. Cohen, Against Criminology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
CRENSHAW, Kimberle (1989) “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics,” 1989 University of Chicago Legal Forum 139.Google Scholar
DALTON, Clare (1985) “An Essay in Deconstructing Contract Law,” 94 Yale Law Journal 997.Google Scholar
DREYFUS, Hubert, & Paul, RABINOW (1983) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EDWARDS, Paul (ed.) (1967) 5 The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 322.Google Scholar
FINEMAN, Martha (1990) “Dominant Discourse, Professional Language, and Legal Change in Child Custody Decisionmaking,” 101 Harvard Law Review 727.Google Scholar
FLAGG, Barbara (1990) “Women's Narratives, Women's Story,” 59 University of Cincinnati Law Review 147.Google Scholar
FOUCAULT, Michael (1979) Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
FRENCH, Marilyn (1985) Beyond Power. New York: Summit Books.Google Scholar
GAGNIER, R. (1990) “Feminist Postmodernism: The End of Feminism or the Ends of Theory?” in Rhode, D. (ed.), Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Difference.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, Jill Laurie (1981) “Sexual Harassment: Some Observations on the Distance Travelled and the Distance Yet to Go,” 10 Capitol University Law Review 445.Google Scholar
GORDON, Margaret, and Stephanie, RIGER (1989) The Female Fear. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
HEISE, Lori (1989) “A World of Abuse,” San Francisco Examiner, This World sec., 2 July, pp. 1112.Google Scholar
HOOKS, bell (1984) Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
KAY, Herma Hill (1988) Text, Cases and Materials on Sex-based Discrimination. 3d ed. St. Paul, MN: West.Google Scholar
KING, Patricia (1989) “Should Mom Be Constrained in the Best Interests of the Fetus,” 13 Nova Law Review 394.Google Scholar
LEWIN, Tamar (1990) “Drug Use During Pregnancy: New Issue Before the Courts,” New York Times, 5 Feb. 1990, pp. A1Y, A12Y, cols. 14.Google Scholar
LITTLETON, Christine A. (1987) “Restructuring Sexual Equality,” 75 California Law Review 1279 (1987).Google Scholar
LORDE, Audre (1983) “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House,” in C. Moraga and G. Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. 2d ed. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press.Google Scholar
MacKINNON, Catharine (1987) Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
MILL, MILL John Stuart (1986) The Subjection of Women (Prometheus ed. 1986).Google Scholar
MYDANS, Seth (1988) “For Women: A New Road in Bangladesh,” New York Times, 17 April 1988, p. 11Y, cols. 12.Google Scholar
NORTON, Mary Beth (1988) “The Constitutional Status of Women in 1781,” 6 Journal of Law and Inequality 7.Google Scholar
OKIN, Susan Moller (1989) Justice, Gender and the Family. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
RUSSELL, Diane (1982) Rape in Marriage. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
RUSSELL, Diane (1986) The Secret Trauma. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
RHODE, Deborah (ed.) (1990) Theoretical Perspectives on Gender Difference. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
ROSEN, Ruth (1991) “What Feminist Victory in the Court?New York Times, 1 April, p. A11, cols. 36.Google Scholar
TELTSCH, Kathleen (1990) “In Detroit, a Drug Recovery Center That Welcomes the Pregnant Addict,” New York Times, 20 March 1990, p. A8Y, cols. 15.Google Scholar
WEST, Robin (1987) “The Difference in Women's Hedonic Lives: A Phenomenological Critique of Feminist Legal Theory,” 3 Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 193.Google Scholar
WEITZMAN, Lenore J. (1986) The Divorce Revolution. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
WILDMAN, Stephanie M. (1990) “Review Essay: The Power of Women,” 2 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 423.Google Scholar
WILLIAMS, Patricia (1987) “Alchemical Notes: Reconstructing Ideals from Deconstructed Rights,” 22 Harvard Civil Rights–Civil Liberties Law Review 401.Google Scholar

Statute Cited

Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, 42 U.S.C. 2000e (1978).Google Scholar

Cases Cited

In re A.C., 533 A.2d 611 (D.C. App. 1987), vacated and rehearing granted 539 A.2d 203 (1988).Google Scholar
American Booksellers Ass'n v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323 (1985); aff'd mem. 475 U.S. 1001 (1986).Google Scholar
California Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272 (1987).Google Scholar
Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, 414 U.S. 632, 653 (Powell, J., concurring 1974).Google Scholar
Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321 (1977).Google Scholar
Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973).Google Scholar
Geduldig v. Aiello, 447 U.S. 484 (1974).Google Scholar
General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976).Google Scholar
Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616 (1987).Google Scholar
Michael M. v. Superior Court, 450 U.S. 464 (1981).Google Scholar
Personnel Administrator v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256 (1979).Google Scholar
Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).Google Scholar
Rotsker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UAW v. Johnson Controls, 59 U.S.L.W. 4209 (1991).Google Scholar
Wimberly v. Labor & Industrial Rel. Com'n, 479 U.S. 511 (1987).Google Scholar