Gender Law and Policy

Book excerpt: Gender Law and Policy, Fourth Edition, by Katharine T. Bartlett, Deborah L. Rhode, Joanna L. Grossman, Deborah L. Brake, and Frank Rudy Cooper provides the theoretical frameworks, legal cases, and policy background necessary for analyzing a broad range of gender issues in the law. It is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in Women’s Studies, Political Science, and other fields focusing on gender law and policy, including Women and the Law and Gender Law and Policy. This text features lucid introductions in each chapter that illuminate the issues significant to each topic, alternative theoretical perspectives that facilitate open-minded problem-solving, and incisive commentary by leading scholars and policymakers. Timely coverage of foundational and cutting-edge issues includes constitutional law, employment law, Title IX and education (including sports), family law, sexual harassment, sexual violence, pornography, prostitution, global trafficking, LGBT issues, and women’s sexual and reproductive health. Features of the Fourth Edition: Organized in five chapters focusing on different theoretical frameworks to enable students to grasp different conceptualizations of equality and justice. Introductory chapter with a broad overview of the theoretical frameworks, as well as the adjacent critical theories with the most relevance to the study of gender and law—intersectionality, queer theory, and masculinities studies. Includes more than 200 “Putting Theory into Practice” Problems, most based on real-life, unresolved problems, to keep a consistent, stimulating focus on the relationship between theory and practice. Coverage of latest developments in the field, including Supreme Court decisions on abortion and LGBT discrimination. Features boxed definitions of terms and explanations of the legal process that are important for understanding the cases and a glossary where students can look up unfamiliar terms and concepts. Provides timelines and charts for graphic enhancement of important information. Offers clear introductions to each chapter, subject matter, and lead case, along with reading questions, so that students can focus on the implications of the law rather than figure out the content of the law. Tailors cases to undergraduate use, almost entirely omitting procedural issues but preserving detailed facts necessary for analysis. New or enhanced coverage of the #MeToo movement, reproductive justice, campus sexual assault, trans athlete bans, and intimate partner violence. Professors and students will benefit from: Adaptation of the best-selling law school gender and law textbook for undergraduate use for courses in gender, law, and policy. Intersperses theoretical and practice materials: excerpted legal cases, statutes, and law review articles form an ongoing dialogue within the book to stimulate thought and discussion. Provides complete, up-to-date coverage of conventional “women and the law” issues, including constitutional law, employment law, affirmative action, sexual harassment, reproductive rights, domestic violence, Title IX, and poverty and race, along with analysis of cutting-edge issues relating to LGBTQ and nonbinary individuals.