This course provides an overview of gender justice issues, examining how the legal system shapes — and is shaped by — gender. The course examines many of the substantive topics that feminist legal scholars have written extensively about, including feminist advocacy and the major cases in the field. The course examines how feminism has influenced the shape of legal categories and doctrines since the 1970s. The course also will explore the intersectional questions of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and disability. The focus will be on legal analysis, public policy, and advocacy.

Course readings will cover feminist legal theory, including liberal, radical, cultural, and anti-essentialist feminism, as well as issues of gender equality, subordination, and notable gender equality cases. The course will consider the relationship between theory and practice by looking at a number of issues that arise at junctures where women's lives encounter law (e.g., employment, legal education, reproductive freedom, sexual harassment, sexual violence, pornography, and work-life balance). We will also consider other specific manifestations of gender and gender stereotypes in law.

Satisfies the Writing Requirement.

Recommended for the Following Professional Pathways: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties; Government/Public Sector; Labor and Employment; Law Through a Different Lens

3 Credits