First published in 1998, reissued here with a new preface, this volume is the first full-length discussion of women’s experiences in the solicitors’ profession in the UK. It provides an account which is grounded in historical research and a contemporary research study. The authors explore this material to analyze both women’s own experiences and the mainstream culture and structure of the profession. Following a treatment of the struggle against the formal exclusionary barriers to women’s entry to the profession, this book then seeks to identify the informal obstacles which were subsequently erected to women’s participation and career progression, and examine their persistence, in a modified form, into the contemporary era. The analysis draws on perspectives from feminist jurisprudence to the sociology of the professions to shed light on the processes which support women’s continued subordination in employment as lawyers.
"International sex researcher, neuroscientist, and frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Debra Soh [discusses what she sees as] gender myths in this ... examination of the many facets of gender identity"--
Bringing together an international range of academics, Gender, Sexualities and Law provides a comprehensive interrogation of the range of contemporary issues – both topical and controversial – raised by the gendered character of law, legal discourse and institutions. The gendering of law, persons and the legal profession, along with the gender bias of legal outcomes, has been a fractious, but fertile, focus of reflection. It has, moreover, been an important site of political struggle. This collection of essays offers an unrivalled examination of its various contemporary dimensions, focusing on: issues of theory and representation; violence, both national and international; reproduction and parenting; and partnership, sexuality, marriage and the family. Gender, Sexualities and Law will be invaluable for all those engaged in research and study of the law (and related fields) as a form of gendered power.
Awarded the 2013 Birks Book Prize by the Society of Legal Scholars, Women, Judging and the Judiciary expertly examines debates about gender representation in the judiciary and the importance of judicial diversity. It offers a fresh look at the role of the (woman) judge and the process of judging and provides a new analysis of the assumptions which underpin and constrain debates about why we might want a more diverse judiciary, and how we might get one. Through a theoretical engagement with the concepts of diversity and difference in adjudication, Women, Judging and the Judiciary contends that prevailing images of the judge are enmeshed in notions of sameness and uniformity: images which are so familiar that their grip on our understandings of the judicial role are routinely overlooked. Failing to confront these instinctive images of the judge and of judging, however, comes at a price. They exclude those who do not fit this mould, setting them up as challengers to the judicial norm. Such has been the fate of the woman judge. But while this goes some way to explaining why, despite repeated efforts, our attempts to secure greater diversity in our judiciary have fallen short, it also points a way forward. For, by getting a clearer sense of what our judges really do and how they do it, we can see that women judges and judicial diversity more broadly do not threaten but rather enrich the judiciary and judicial decision-making. As such, the standard opponent to measures to increase judicial diversity - the necessity of appointment on merit - is in fact its greatest ally: a judiciary is stronger and the justice it dispenses better the greater the diversity of its members, so if we want the best judiciary we can get, we should want one which is fully diverse. Women, Judging and the Judiciary will be of interest to legal academics, lawyers and policy makers working in the fields of judicial diversity, gender and adjudication and, more broadly, to anyone interested in who our judges are and what they do.
From the Back Cover: A Comprehensive road map for single-gender initiatives! Over 400 public schools in the United States offer single-gender classes or programs, and the number of schools contemplating such initiatives is growing at a rapid pace. In this book, David W. Chadwell, the first state coordinator for single-gender programs, offers a step-by-step process with practical planning tools for implementing high-quality single-sex programs and schools. Organized into three parts-considering, designing, and implementing single-gender initiatives in local school sites and districts-this resource includes detailed, essential information on: restructuring to accommodate single-gender classes; communicating with parents and overcoming resistance; understanding relevant legal issues; facilitating instructional changes; creating a 1- to 3-year plan. Featuring numerous vignettes, current demographic data, and critical insights for professional development, A Gendered Choice provides everything educators need to know about creating single-gender schools or programs.
This collection provides an innovative and engaging way of assessing the development of legal profession scholarship and its potential future development by presenting an analysis of the ‘leading works’ of the discipline. The book was written by prominent and emerging international scholars in the field, with each contributor having been invited to select and analyse a work which has for them shed light on what the legal profession is and what it does. The chapters explore the effect that the chosen work has had upon legal profession scholarship as a whole, both within particular jurisdictions and internationally. Contributors also reflect upon the likely implications of the leading work on the future study of and application to the legal profession. They relate the works to recent and contemporary developments in law and access to justice, such as the rise of technology, impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and issues of funding, to highlight the interpretative value of such scholarship. Presenting an overview and introduction to the field of legal profession research, the collection will be required reading for researchers looking to study any aspect of the legal profession. It will also prove compelling for a wide variety of access to justice and justice system research projects. The book will also appeal to scholars interested in legal ethics.
Covers the challenges of implementing Oxfam's innovative gender policy: of promoting gender-aware development and emergency work; of influencing organisational culture and of working with the international women's movement to promote gender equality.
The first textbook to consider gender perspectives in relation to the whole undergraduate law curriculum in England and Wales. Gender is of central importance in every area of law and every area of people's lives but is rarely mentioned in the formal LLB syllabus; this book is designed to fill some of those gaps. 18 chapters, written by experts in the field, cover all the core modules on the English LLB together with 11 of the most popular options. Aimed at students and lecturers on undergraduate and postgraduate Gender and Law modules, the book will also be useful for all LLB and LLM students studying English law, who may use it to accompany their studies from their first to their final year, and also for prospective law students, legal scholars from outside England and Wales, and scholars in other disciplines.
Conflict between work and family life is an all too familiar experience for many Americans. The difficult choices facing women who combine paid work with childcare are the subject of a deluge of books and articles in addition to an ongoing public debate about how women and men should balance their work and family commitments. Although we know a great deal about the social and cultural environment fueling these contradictions among middle-class and upper middle class women, we know little about the forces that influence poor and low-income women. Work and Family Commitments of Low-Income and Impoverished Women addresses this omission and gives voice to women in poverty as it traces the moral and cultural structures that help shape the meaning and value of paid work and motherhood among a group of mothers who rely on welfare or a combination of low-wage work and welfare to provide and care for their families. This portrayal of poor women’s lives rarely enters the work-life debate over women’s choices, generally characterized as between mothers who have to work versus those who choose to. Judith Hennessy puts low-income women front and center to shed light on less explored aspects of the moral and cultural foundations of contemporary work and family conflict from interviews and survey data of a group of low-income and poor mothers on and off welfare. Hennessey explores the paradox in American society where combining paid work with caring for children continues to generate considerable ambivalence (and often guilt) on the part of married middle-class mothers for devoting too much time to paid work and supposedly neglecting their children. While poor and working class mothers who might otherwise rely on welfare are relegated to working at low-wage jobs outside the home in fulfillment of their family responsibilities.
In this challenging book, historian Constance H. Buchanan shows that while public debate often blames women for the nation's "crisis of values," women's leadership actually has the potential to solve this crisis by redefining the American pattern of adult life and work.
