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Law's Presence, Law's Absence: Reporting Stories of Employment Discrimination in the Academy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2018
Abstract
Discussing employment problems in universities enacts an information asymmetry that has recently highlighted sexual harassment as a legal wrong while dampening other potential descriptions of reasons for disparities. Defining sexual harassment as unwanted sexual attention both understates and overstates problems at work, not least because it is not an issue for all women. This focus contrasts with books that popularized other kinds of barriers at work for women just a few years earlier. The stories about sexual harassment contrast with systematic evidence concerning reasons for disadvantage at work, which is less easy to tell as a story with characters, events, and a time line. In this instance, law, along with university leaders’ willingness to publicly act on claims, has proven productive of complaints that women have been reluctant to make since the Office of Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” in 2011 addressing sexual assault in higher education. This article draws on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s reports of discrimination. It concludes by arguing for proliferating stories, motivated by lessons from systematic research, even if law is not a remedy.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018
Footnotes
I am grateful to reviewers of previous versions of this manuscript and to the editors. Discussions with Jennifer Diascro, Jeannine Bell, Judith Grant, Loan Le, Lee Walker, and many others have also informed this article. Lorita Daniels gathered news reports and coded. Laura Mateczun and Rebecca Postowski also assisted. The University of Cape Town's Center for Law and Society hosted a visit, courtesy as well of the Fulbright Specialists program, that allowed me to revise this manuscript. Carol Mershon and Denise Walsh's project on advancing women in political science provoked thoughts about law and advancement. Finally, the National Science Foundation (grant #1643084) provided some support.
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