Feminist Jurisprudence

This class will explore a variety of feminist approaches to law. We will begin with a review of the development of several schools of feminist legal theory, including liberal feminism, cultural or relational feminism, dominance feminism, postmodernist feminism, and the intersection of feminist theory with critical race theory and queer theory. We will examine the perspectives offered by these approaches on central issues in the philosophy of law, including the meaning of equality, the possibility of objectivity or neutrality, and the role of power. We will then apply these feminist theories to a range of legal issues, such as rape, sexual harassment and other employment discrimination, child custody, intimate partner abuse, the regulation of reproduction, and work/family conflict. The class will include both lecture and discussion. There will be one final examination which will be a take-home exam. Grades will be based on the final exam and on class participation.