The growing presence of women in the legal profession and the prominence of law as a site of feminist social change make the complex interrelationship between the media, feminism, and the law a critical concern across disciplines. Drawing on legal theory, cultural studies, journalism, political science, sociology, and communications, this book presents a collection of essays that explore how the media represents and constructs gender, law, and feminism. Arranged thematically, these twenty-three articles are the work of distinguished academics and activists.

The collection begins with a...

How do "no-fault," "gender-neutral" divorce reforms actually harm the lives of women and children they are designed to protect? Focusing on the language and symbols of reform, Martha Fineman argues that by advocating measures based on equality of "treatment" rather than of "outcome, " liberal feminists disregarded the socioeconomic factors that simultaneously place women at a disadvantage in the market and favor their taking on primary domestic responsibilities. She traces in persuasive detail the detrimental effects of equality rhetoric in shaping divorce law such as the legal separation of...

This work explores the complex and diverse feminist and legal responses to domestic violence from a cross-cultural perspective. In addition to more general discussions of violence against women, the essays in this volume consider child abuse by mothers, battering in lesbian relationships, state sanctioned violence, non-physical violence and incest. The contributors argue that domestic violence must be viewed in its social and cultural context, in which the state is complicit, and not simply within the private, psychological domain of the family. The Public Nature of Private Violence offers a...

Calling for nothing less than a radical reform of family law and a reconception of intimacy, The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family, and Other Twentieth Century Tragedies argues strongly against current legal and social policy discussions about the family because they do not have at their core the crucial concepts of caregiving and dependency, as well as the best interests of women and children.
The Neutered Mother scrutinizes the definitions of family and...

"The essays in this volume confront the inroads that economics has made into the legal academy. . . . Law and Economics uses principles of neoclassical economics to develop laws and social policies that maintain if not bolster current allocations of power." from the IntroductionThe Law and Economics school has had a significant impact on the legal and governmental landscape in the United States. It posits a perfectly rational "economic man" homo economicus who is unconstrained by familial and communal ties and who can and should make decisions solely in light of considerations of economic...

Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women's roles, identities, and rights. This timely work provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women's lives.