Category Archives: Feminist Legal History

Serena Mayeri, “Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution”

Anyone interested in feminist jurisprudence or rights discourse will want to read this new book by Serena Mayeri (Penn): Reasoning from Race Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution.  The publisher’s description is here. Mayeri uncovers the history of an … Continue reading

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“Feminist Legal History: Essays on Women and Law”

NYU Press has published Feminist Legal History: Essays on Women and Law, edited by Tracy A. Thomas (Law, Akron) and Tracey Jean Boisseau (History, Akron). Contributors to the volume are: Carrie N. Baker Felice Batlan Tracey Jean Boisseau Eileen Boris Richard H. … Continue reading

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Post Office Named in Honor of Dorothy Height

A post office near Union Station in Washington, D.C. has been renamed in honor of Dr. Dorothy I. Height.  Dr. Height was the president of the National Council of Negro Women from1957-1997.  She previously was the president of the national … Continue reading

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NYPL Manuscript Collection – 20th Century New York Women’s History

I stumbled across a reference to a set of records maintained by the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts Division.  The library has approximately 33 boxes of materials from the Women’s Action Coalition: The Women’s Action Coalition Records trace the rise … Continue reading

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Video Tour of Sewall-Belmont House and Museum

The Sewall-Belmont House and Museum in Washington, D.C. (image source here) is a worthwhile stop on any tour of the nation’s capitol: The Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, celebrates women’s progress toward equality—and explores the … Continue reading

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Delaying Thanksgiving Dinner for Political Commitments, 1909 Style

In November, 1909, the LA Times reported on the arrival of Emiline Pankhurst in Chicago under the headline, “Suffrage Postpones Thanksgiving Feast – Chicago Women Chanage Dinner Hour So that They May Turn Out in Full Force to Meet Mrs. Pankhurst … Continue reading

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Racialized Blame: What Virginia Thomas and Anita Hill Have to Do With It

Writing in the November 15, 2010 edition of The Nation, Professor Melissa Harris-Perry (Princeton) reacts to the news that Virginia Thomas, wife of United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, called Professor Anita Hill and asked Professor Hill to apologize: … Continue reading

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Are Women “Persons”?

It’s the anniversary of the “Persons Case.” If you are not a Canadian feminist legal scholar, you can learn more. -Ruthann Robson

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminist Legal History, Firsts | 1 Comment

Kierner on “Martha Jefferson Randolph and the Performance of Patriarchy: Family, Gender, and Presidents in the Early American Republic”

On October 8, 2010, Cynthia A. Kierner (History, George Mason University) will present her paper, “Martha Jefferson Randolph and the Performance of Patriarchy: Family, Gender, and Presidents in the Early American Republic” at the Newberry Seminar on Women and Gender at … Continue reading

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Constitution Day – – – for Feminists?

  September 17  is “Constitution and Citizenship Day,” commemorating the signing of the Constitution in 1787.  The Congressional resolution,  codified at 36 U.S.C. § 106, also includes a  requirement of an “educational program” at all educational institutions that receive federal … Continue reading

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Blair LM Kelley Wins 2010 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award

Congratulations to Professor Blair LM Kelley (History, North Carolina) who has received the 2010 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award from the Association of Black Women Historians for her book, Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of … Continue reading

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Joan of Arc in NYC

According to this editorial from the New York Times on August 26, 2010 edition (at A-26), New York City’s first statue of a woman was raised in 1912: This is the first statue of a woman — not a female abstraction … Continue reading

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Declaration of Independence Thoughts: Kagan Hearing and (White Male) Philosophers

Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the foundational text for the July Fourth "Independence Day" national holiday in the United States. Among the discussions of the document this year, two stand out.  … Continue reading

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Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminist Legal History | 1 Comment

Olson, Freedom’s Daughters: A Juneteenth Story

 Lynne Olson, a former reporter, is the author of Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour (Random House 2010).  Browsing my local bookstore today — Juneteenth — it was her 2002 book, Freedom’s Daughters: … Continue reading

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Inniss on History of U.S. Slave Trade

The New York Times published Lolita Buckner Inniss’s letter to the editor in response to  Henry Louis Gates’s April 23, 2010 op-ed, “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game.”  Professor Inniss writes: To the Editor: As Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. points out, … Continue reading

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The Regulation of Naming

Yofi Tirosh, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University, has published A Name of One’s Own: Gender and Symbolic Legal Personhood in the European Court of Human Rights, in volume 33 of the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender (2010). Here … Continue reading

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An all women Supreme Court?

It’s not impossible.   The Texas Supreme Court is a testament to the possibility.   It happened eighty-five years ago,   if only for a single case. In 1925, the Texas Governor appointed three women to fill all the positions … Continue reading

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Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Law, Feminist Legal History, If you're a woman, Legal Profession, The Underrepresentation of Women | 2 Comments

Egerman on “Avoiding Confrontation”

Mark Egerman (Staff Counsel, National Abortion Federation) has posted to SSRN his working paper, “Avoiding Confrontation,” a a feminist critique of evidence law.  Here is a portion of the abstract: This article takes seriously Justice Scalia’s facetious aside in Giles … Continue reading

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The Feminist Theory Papers at Brown University’s Pembroke Center

From the official website: The Feminist Theory Papers is an exceptional archival collection representing scholars who have transformed their disciplines and the intellectual landscape of universities in the United States and internationally. This focused and coherent manuscript collection is indispensable … Continue reading

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Jennifer Baszile’s”The Black Girl Next Door”

Historiann has a review here. Interview with Jennifer Baszile (including readings from the book) here: –Ann Bartow

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African-American History Teaching Resources

There are some nice teaching resources for African-American history at AfroAmericanHeritage.com.   Many of the materials are geared more for primary and secondary school students, but there are some especially nice posters that would make for good law school classroom … Continue reading

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Fellowships at the Massachusetts Historical Society

From the FLP mailbox, this notice of research fellowships at the Massachusetts Historical Society: The Massachusetts Historical Society will offer about 30 research fellowships for the academic year 2010-2011, including at least two long-term research fellowships made possible by the … Continue reading

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Monk and the Baroness: Nica Rothschild’s Contributions to American Jazz History

Later this month, the documentary film “The Jazz Baroness” will air on cable TV.  The film was made by the English artist (and member of the Rothschild banking family) Hannah Rothschild.  The “Jazz Baroness” explores the life of Kathleen Annie … Continue reading

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Lemons, “Womanist Forefathers”

Gary L. Lemons (English, Univ. of South Florida) has published his new book, Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois, with SUNY Press.  Professor Lemons traces the origins of contemporary African-American male feminist thought to the “pro-womanist” stances of … Continue reading

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Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millett

From this site: …[R]adical feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys talks about the influence of Kate Millett on the course of feminist thinking, most particularly through her book Sexual Politics (1970). Jeffreys gives a summary of the key ideas of Millett’s work … Continue reading

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“Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA’s Lost Female Astronauts”

Women were more qualified to to go into space than men. Having the wrong gonads kept them grounded. This Wired.com article reports: … In the late 1950s, the United States government contemplated training women as astronauts, and newly released medical … Continue reading

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Posted in Academia, Employment Discrimination, Feminist Legal History, The Underrepresentation of Women | 1 Comment

Betty Ford Was A Feminist

Check out this post at Tennessee Guerilla Women, which notes: “In the 1970s, First Lady Betty Ford advocated the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), was openly pro choice and proudly told the world that she was a feminist.” … Continue reading

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“Maggot Lace”

A few weeks ago I read a piece by Caitlin Flanagan in the September issue of The Atlantic, entitled: Sex and the Married Man. Like about everything Flanagan writes it was awful, full of lurid and venemous speculation about the … Continue reading

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“Missing Woman – Amelia Earhart’s flight” by Judith Thurman

In the New Yorker – read it here.

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Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan

Vitaphone newsreel from 1930. In this footage Sullivan and Keller demonstrate how Helen Keller learned to talk.

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Posted in Feminism and Culture, Feminist Legal History | 4 Comments

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

A lot gets written and said about Margaret Sanger. This NYU archive provides readers with access to her actual words. It also offers rebuttals to mischaracterizations of her views, and other information about Sanger and her work. –Ann Bartow

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Posted in Feminism and Law, Feminist Legal History, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Reproductive Rights | 1 Comment

Women have always outnumbered men in college;”Womyn”and”waitperson”have always been in the dictionary.

Those are two excerpts from The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013.

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“Woman Suffrage in Iowa” at Blanden Memorial Art Museum

“Woman Suffrage in Iowa: 90 Years After the ‘Winning Plan’” is a current exhibition at Blanden Memorial Art Museum in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The image of the poster at left, featured in the Blanden exhibit, derives from an original painting … Continue reading

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A Feminist Legal History of U.S. Patriotism

To mark the July 4 holiday, I’m reading a book by Francesca Morgan (History, Northeastern Illinois University). In  Women and Patriotism in Jim Crow America (UNC Press 2005), Morgan details the activities of these women’s volunteer organizations founded after the … Continue reading

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The Women’s Orchestra in Auschwitz

Liane Curtis asked me to post this for her; she can be contacted at lcurtis@brandeis.edu Article: The Women’s Orchestra in Auschwitz Hello, Some years ago, I worked with a student in translating a 1996 article by Gabrielle Knapp from German … Continue reading

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Nixon Supported Abortions to Prevent Racial Mixing

Whoa.  The New York Times reports here on the contents of the Nixon-Whitehouse tapes released yesterday by the National Archives.  One recording (audio file here) captured Nixon’s reflections on  Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973, the day the Supreme … Continue reading

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Legal History Research Resources: Stonewall Edition

OutHistory.org, is a website produced by produced by The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS), located at the City University of New York Graduate Center.  All of the content is provided by volunteers.   A new on-line exhibit (here) … Continue reading

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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury: The Role of the “Child Care Exception” in the Development of the Right of Women to Serve as Jurors

In its recent opinion in State v. Schmeiderer, 2009 WL 961787 (Tenn.Crim.App. 2009), the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee rejected a convicted murder’s appeal, in which he had claimed, inter alia, that “the trial court systematically excluded women from … Continue reading

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Posted in Courts and the Judiciary, Feminism and Families, Feminist Legal History | 1 Comment

Gail Laughlin, Nineteenth Century Lawyer and Rights Activist

Today is the birthday of Gail Laughlin (1868-1952), an 1898 graduate of Cornell Law School.    She served in the Maine House (1927-1934) and the Maine Senate (1937-1941).  She was an early advocate for woman suffrage and for the prevention … Continue reading

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Unveiling the Bronze Bust of Truth

From the Feminist Daily News Wire: Michelle Obama unveiled a bust of Sojourner Truth, known for her abolitionist and women’s rights work, at the US Capitol yesterday. Truth’s statue is the first of an African-American woman in the Capitol. The … Continue reading

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“What Every Woman Should Know about Fannie Lou Hamer”

Great historical post by this title here, at the New Agenda.

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Somehow Missed Mary Wollstonecraft’s 250th Birthday

Luckily, Historiann did not.

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Law Professor Annette Gordon-Reed (NYLS) Wins Pulitzer

From the NYT list of winners: HISTORY:”The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,”by Annette Gordon-Reed: A painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.” … Continue reading

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What the United States Postal Service Understands that Michigan Law Review Doesn’t

The United States Postal Service seems to understand — in a way that the Michigan Law Review doesn’t (see here) — that gender balance is important.  In choosing “Civil Rights Pioneers” to honor in its commemorative stamp series above, the … Continue reading

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This one is going to be controversial: “Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU” by Wendy Kaminer

Product Description What happens when an organization with the express goal of defending individual rights and liberties starts silencing its own board? Lawyer and social critic Wendy Kaminer has intimate knowledge of such a conflict between individual conscience and group … Continue reading

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“Jaded”

That’s the name of this post at What Tami Said, a blog I like a lot. Tami is a talented writer and her posts are always interesting. Here’s a short except from “Jaded“: Women’s equality, I think, is best achieved–not … Continue reading

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Is Women’s History Month History?

Did you know that each year the National Women’s History Project establishes a theme for Women’s History month?  I didn’t.  This year’s theme is “Women taking the lead to save our planet.”   I don’t know if it is me, … Continue reading

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Bella Abzug Research Resources

From the National Council for Research on Women, a “learning and organizing guide” to accompany Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom’s edited volume,  Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off … Continue reading

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I Wanna Be …

Via The New Agenda blog

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I Don’t Give a Damn Bout My Bad Reputation: Julia Simon-Kerr’s “Unchaste and Incredible” and the Development of the Character Evidence Rules

In the American court system, when judges allow attorneys to attack the character of witnesses, they generally allow them to do so only through reputation and opinion testimony. Federal Rule of Evidence 405(a) provides that: In all cases in which … Continue reading

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