Sex equality is topic of new publications

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), May 25, 2001 by Daily Record Staff

Three sex equality publications by leading feminist scholar Catharine A. MacKinnon are available through Foundation Press, a division of West Group. Sex Equality, and its companion volumes, Sex Equality: Rape Law and Sex Equality: Family Law are progressive legal casebooks that examine U.S. law in comparative, international, social and theoretical contexts.

MacKinnon has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine as the law's most prominent feminist legal theorist, and named to the Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by The National Law Journal. MacKinnon currently teaches at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Chicago School of Law.

Her law degree and doctorate in political science are from Yale. She previously taught at Michigan, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Minnesota, UCLA, the University of Chicago, Osgoode Hall (Toronto), and the University of Basel (Switzerland).

Sex Equality is theoretical and practical, domestic and transnational, combining a thorough canvas of the law with an insightful roles and questions for professors and practitioners alike. Sex Equality: Rape Law (Chapters 1 & 7.1) and Sex Equality: Family Law (Chapters 1 & 6) are paperbacks intended for those teaching Criminal Law and Family Law, respectively.

Sex Equality penetratingly re-thinks gender relations as it maps legal doctrine with cutting-edge theoretical tools. The first half of the book, Foundations, interrogates the mainstream legal equality paradigm through materials drawn from theory, social science, history and comparative law. Cases on racism, work, education, athletics and pregnancy are examined in detail, accessibly presenting the statutory and constitutional materials of sex discrimination law in a fresh light.

A chapter titled Sex, Race and Nation expands on the connections between racism and sexism raised throughout the book. Another chapter, Burdens of Proof, equips the litigator with basic technical skills while examining the political and theoretical issues on a procedural terrain.

Applications, the second half of the book, explores issues that have received less legal equality attention, including the law of the family, rape, abortion, prostitution and pornography. The argument that gay and lesbian rights are sex equality rights is advanced. Sexual harassment in employment and education is also discussed in depth.