Category Archives: Feminism and the Workplace

Lani Guinier and Susan Sturm, “Trial by Firefighters”

From the NYT: STANDING on the steps of the federal courthouse in New Haven, the lawyer Karen Torre reveled in her clients’ victory in a recent case before the Supreme Court. She anointed her clients : the white firefighters who … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and the Workplace, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Feminists in Academia, Race and Racism | 3 Comments

Suzy, Check the Clutch

The title of the post on Salon.com is “Jack Welch to women:  Work and family don’t mix.”   The Salon post refers to this WSJ article which begins, “Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch has some blunt words … Continue reading

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Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the “morning after” contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

The LA Times reported: … In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a supermarket pharmacy owner in Olympia, Wash., failed in a bid to block 2007 regulations that required all Washington pharmacies to stock and dispense … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and Medicine, Feminism and the Workplace, Reproductive Rights, Women's Health | Comments Off on Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the “morning after” contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

Why hasn’t the “degree gap” closed the “salary gap”?

Prof. Mark Perry prepared this graph: If I’m reading it correctly, women and men got the same number of college degrees in 1982. By 1983, women started obtaining more college degrees then men, and this trend has continued on into … Continue reading

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“… 2,000 people from some of South Carolina’s most depressed counties … flocked to a job fair this week to hear more about new jobs cleaning up dangerous waste at [a] former bomb-making complex, the Savannah River Site.”

Story here. –Ann Bartow

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Posted in Feminism and the Workplace, South Carolina | Comments Off on “… 2,000 people from some of South Carolina’s most depressed counties … flocked to a job fair this week to hear more about new jobs cleaning up dangerous waste at [a] former bomb-making complex, the Savannah River Site.”

Breast Enhancement as an Employment Incentive?

The NYTimes reports (here)  on unusual employment incentives being offered by hospitals and clinics in the Czech Republic: When Petra Kalivodova, a 31-year-old nurse, was considering whether to renew her contract at a private health clinic here, special perks helped … Continue reading

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Beyond The Scope (But Not): Court Finds That Supervisor’s Sexist Statements Qualify As Employee Admissions

Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(D)  states Admission by party-opponent. [A] statement is not hearsay if…[t]he statement is offered against a party and is…a statement by the party’s agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or … Continue reading

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Essay of Interest: Michael DiChiara’s A Case of First Impression: The Third Circuit Recognizes That Having An Abortion Is Protected By Title VII

Over the last few months, I have been working on a Submission Guide for Online Law Review Supplements. While doing my research for the Guide, I came across an interesting volume of the  Rutgers Law Record, the online supplement to … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and the Workplace, Reproductive Rights | 2 Comments

California Assembly Passes Fair Pay Legislation

From the Feminist Daily News: The California state Assembly passed a state-level version of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Monday on a 49 to 28 vote. The measure codifies at the state level a broader version of the federal … Continue reading

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Schroer v. Billington Update

Nan Hunter blogged about this case here, writing: The Schroer court held that just as discrimination against converts from one to faith to another is still discrimination based on religion, so too discrimination against transgender persons is still sex discrimination. … Continue reading

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Blog for Fair Pay Day – Cynical GenX Style

Today is “Blog For Fair Pay Day 2009,” coordinated by the National Women’s Law Center. For feminist law profs who don’t work at public institutions where salary info is public, don’t forget about Guidestar.  It is a website that contains … Continue reading

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Differently Abled?: Court Identifies Circuit Split Over Who is Similarly Situated to a Pregnancy Discrimination Act Plaintiff

The recent opinion of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois  in Woodard v. Rest Haven Christian Services, 2009 703270 (N.D. Ill. 2009), acknowledged but did not resolve an interesting circuit split on the following issue: … Continue reading

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Race, gender, customer preferences and BFOQs

In Pleener v. NYC Board of Education, ___F.3d___ (2d Cir. Feb. 24, 2009), the Second Circuit affirmed that   an employer may never make an employment decision based upon the preferences of clients or customers, because race is never a … Continue reading

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Judicial Flubber?: First Circuit Seemingly Repudiates Supreme Court Sex-Stereotyping Precedent In Sex Discrimination Appeal

When the Supreme Court replaced the relatively simple Frye test with the relatively complicated Daubert  test for determining the admissibility of expert opinion testimony, many critics (correctly) groused that science-starved judges would not be able to rise to the task … Continue reading

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Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Families, Feminism and the Workplace | 1 Comment

John A. Humbach on “Pornography in the Cockpit: Did Common Sense Take Flight?”

Sexual harassment is a serious matter, and ought to be treated as such. Women (and men) who need to go out into the workplace for a living are legally entitled to do so without rude reactions to make them deeply … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace | 5 Comments

United Airlines settles harassment suit over cockpit pornography

The Seattle Times reports: United Airlines has settled a federal sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by a former pilot who grounded herself after repeatedly finding pornography hidden in the cockpits of domestic airline flights. Details of the settlement with former Capt. Lisa … Continue reading

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“In fiscal 2008, the department received a total of 2,908 reports of sexual assault involving service members, representing an eight percent increase from fiscal 2007.”

Quote pulled from this DOD press release, which provides an overview of this DOD report. Excerpt from Executive Summary below: – Aggregate Report of Sexual Assault Incidents: In FY08 there were 2,908 reports of sexual assault involving Military Service members: … Continue reading

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Kimberly D. Phillips, “My Body is a Sacred ‘Garment’: Does the First Amendment Protect Clothing Designers Who Work Naked?”

The abstract: A Warner Brothers employee, Ms. Lyle, sued the writers of the TV program, Friends, for sexual harassment because the writers used sexually explicit coarse and vulgar language during their script writing sessions for the show. In the Supreme … Continue reading

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Not Very Discriminating?: Court of Appeals Of Michigan Erroneously Affirms Summary Judgment Order In Employment Discrimination/Retaliation Appeal

The recent opinion of the Court of Appeals of Michigan in Syrowatka v. County of Washtenaw, 2009 WL 529213 (Mich.App. 2009), affirmed a trial court order granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s claims for employment discrimination … Continue reading

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Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and the Workplace | 1 Comment

“A record number of workers filed federal job discrimination complaints last year, with claims of unfair treatment by older employees seeing the largest increase.”

From Yahoo News: … The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday it received more than 95,000 discrimination claims during the 2008 fiscal year, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Charges of age discrimination jumped by 28.7 percent : … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace, Women and Economics | 1 Comment

Exemption from Service – Mothers in the Military and Fathers at Home

The New York Times reports today about Lisa Pagan, a member of the U.S. Army Individual Ready Reserves, who brought her two small children (ages 3 and 4) with her when she had been reactivated for service and reported for … Continue reading

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Can “nice guys” be sexual harassers?

Zuska takes on that question here.

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace | 3 Comments

Thoughts on Tuli v. Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Inc., et al.

The Boston Globe reported  here  on the $1.6 million jury verdict in an employment discrimination case brought by a female neurosurgeon against her employer, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the male chair of the Neurosurgery Department.  An earlier order granting … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace | 2 Comments

Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?: The contract law implications of the UAE’s decision to deny a visa to an Israeli tennis player

Whether you are a fan of tennis (like me) or not, you might have been following the recent mess in the United Arab Emirates.   Basically, at the last second, Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer  was denied a visa to … Continue reading

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“In 2007, women only made up 14 percent of the Army. However, during the same year, women accounted for 46 percent of all Army discharges under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

So notes the ACS Blog, which reports: Under the Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, military recruiters and authorities are banned from asking about a soldier’s sexual identify. However, soldiers are required to hide their sexual orientation from public view … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace, LGBT Rights, The Overrepresentation of Women | Tagged | 2 Comments

The number of women among a newly compiled list of the”ten most cited”law faculty members is zero.

List is here, as compiled by Brian Leiter. For a number of reasons I think it would be useful to have a list of the “ten most cited” women law faculty members, more on this later. –Ann Bartow

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and the Workplace, The Underrepresentation of Women | 6 Comments

Pregnant Pause: Eastern District of Michigan Misapplies Adoptive Admission Rule in FMLA/Title VII Action

The recent opinion of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan  in Huck v. Greenspan, 2009 WL 224682 (E.D. Mich. 2009), contains what I feel is a disastrous misapplication of the adoptive admission rule, with similarly … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and the Workplace | 2 Comments

How long before the economic recession is labeled an evil plot by feminists?

Families which contain two adults who work outside the home often have a layer of economic security that two adult families with one “stay at home” partner do not have. So, on a micro level, everything feminists and our allies … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and the Workplace | 2 Comments

Presidential Authority and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

President has authority to change “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” now In her article Let the Small Changes Begin: President Obama, Executive Power, and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Professor Jackie Gardina of Vermont Law School  writes: President Obama should not wait … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and the Workplace, LGBT Rights | Tagged | 1 Comment

Paul Secunda, “Blogging While (Publicly) Employed: Some First Amendment Implications”

Abstract: While private-sector employees do not have First Amendment free speech protection for their blogging activities relating to the workplace, public employees may enjoy some measure of protection depending on the nature of their blogging activity. The essential difference between … Continue reading

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Why do Community College Students Shun the Major Formerly Known As”Secretarial Sciences”?

Dean Dad ponders that question here, and so do some of his readers.

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Trans Fat: A Review by Zak Kramer and Elizabeth Glazer of “Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood” by Anna Kirkland

Abstract: In her book, Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood, Professor Anna Kirkland uses fat discrimination as a case study to examine the ways in which we talk about difference in antidiscrimination law. She argues that the proper way … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace, Feminist Legal Scholarship | Comments Off on Trans Fat: A Review by Zak Kramer and Elizabeth Glazer of “Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood” by Anna Kirkland

“Opt Out” or Pushed Out: Are Women Choosing to Leave the Legal Profession? – A Conference at Yale Law School on March 27-28, 2009.

March 27-28, 2009 Yale Law School Sponsored by Yale Law Women “Opt Out”or Pushed Out will address the controversial phenomenon described by some as”opting out,” the supposed trend of professional women leaving the workplace to devote their energies to family … Continue reading

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Why were there so few women at the World Economic Forum?

Morice Mendoza asks: Where Are the Women? Via Jill at Writes Like She Talks.

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“Debate: Should Feminists Endorse Basic Income?”

Basic Income Studies, an international journal of basic income research, Vol. 3, Issue 3, (2008) Debate: Should Feminists Endorse Basic Income? Guest editor: Ingrid Robeyns, Erasmus University Rotterdam Research Notes “Introduction: Revisiting the Feminism and Basic Income Debate” Ingrid Robeyns, … Continue reading

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Yolanda Young, “What Eric Holder’s Tenure at Covington & Burling Says About Blacks and BigLaw”

Op-Ed here at the HuffPo.

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Cinema Incubo: Tenth Circuit Finds In Dicta That Rape Shield Rule Applies At The Summary Judgment Stage In Former Projectionist’s Appeal

I remember going to Carmike Cinemas  while  attending college in Charlottesville and law school in Williamsburg.   And the memories are not fond.   Dimmed movie projector light bulbs.   Sticky floors.   Terrible sound. Cramped seating.   Now, according … Continue reading

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“One Gender’s Crash”

Deborah Spar, President of Barnard College, writes in the WaPo: ..as the financial debacle unfolds, I can’t help noticing that all the perpetrators of the greatest economic mess in eight decades are, well, men. Specifically, they are rich, white, middle-aged … Continue reading

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Stimulating Gender Equality

As politicians and pundits debate the need for and contents of an economic stimulus program early in the Obama Administration, one issue has gained less attention than it should, and the attention it has gotten is – to my mind … Continue reading

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From the Department of One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: In the 1970s, over 90 percent of the collegiate women’s teams were coached by women, but now just over 40 percent of women’s teams are headed by female coaches (and only 17.7 percent of women’s and men’s teams combined).

A post at the AAUW Dialog blog noted: …Title IX has made an enormous positive difference in women’s sports: two years before the enactment of Title IX in 1970, there were only 2.5 women’s teams per school, but as of … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Feminism and the Workplace, The Underrepresentation of Women | Comments Off on From the Department of One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: In the 1970s, over 90 percent of the collegiate women’s teams were coached by women, but now just over 40 percent of women’s teams are headed by female coaches (and only 17.7 percent of women’s and men’s teams combined).

Four Oklahoma City University law professors allege discrimination and harassment.

Details here and here. Paul Secunda has some observations here.

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Globalization of Surrogacy Markets – US and India

Nazneen Mehta is a second-year law student at Columbia Law School and is writing a Note on the international market in surrogacy services – particularly between relatively affluent “intended parents” in the US and poor female surrogates in India. Her … Continue reading

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Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case, AT & T v. Hulteen — the case revolving around the interpretation of the scope of gender discrimination and pregnancy discrimination in employment under Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

From Dionne Scott at the Center for Reproductive Rights: Four women who entered the workforce prior to the enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) are disputing AT & T’s calculation of their pensions. That calculation was based on a … Continue reading

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminism and the Workplace, Reproductive Rights | Comments Off on Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case, AT & T v. Hulteen — the case revolving around the interpretation of the scope of gender discrimination and pregnancy discrimination in employment under Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Patients v. Medical Students: A Provocative Discussion.

One of my favorite law profs sent me a link to a medical student discussion board, where a very long thread started off with this post: From some personal experience and hearing stories from others, there seems to be a … Continue reading

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Women, Men, Familes, Careers

Echidne has a really good, thoughtful post here.

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Abortion and Medical School

The Wapo has a lengthy article entitled A Hard Choice on this topic, an excerpt is below: You think you are pro-choice, Carole Meyers was saying. But, really, “how pro-choice are you? What does it mean for you? What’s your … Continue reading

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Robert L. Nelson, ­Ellen C. Berrey and ­Laura Beth Nielsen, “Divergent Paths: Conflicting Conceptions of Employment Discrimination in Law and the Social Sciences”

The abstract: Legal conceptions of employment discrimination have become increasingly narrow over the past two decades as the law has adopted a”perpetrator”model of discrimination that emphasizes purposeful intent. This tendency runs counter to social scientific research that documents the pervasiveness … Continue reading

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Report by “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” – “The Disparate Impact of the Economic Crisis on Unmarried Women”

Income: Unmarried women earn only 56 cents for every dollar that married men make. [Center for American Progress, 4/25/08] According to analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for individuals 25 to 61 years old, female-headed households … Continue reading

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Why Women Should Control Wall Street

So last week when I received my TIAA-CREF statement (like many professors, I assume) you might have heard me scream from Milwaukee.   But now I have a better idea–I should be running the market!   Tim Harford, a columnist … Continue reading

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Lilly Ledbetter at Pitt Law Tonight

For readers in the Western Pennsylvania area who might be interested in attending, Lilly Ledbetter will be speaking at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law tonight about her Supreme Court case and the fight for equal pay for women. … Continue reading

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