Gender and the Law

Catalog description

This survey course introduces students to the relationship between gender and law in the United States. It examines how legal institutions shape, and are shaped by, norms surrounding sex, gender, sexuality, and gender identity. It considers how legal doctrines and institutions can both reinforce and challenge gender-based hierarchies and equips students to critically analyze law as a tool of social change. Drawing on foundational texts in feminist and queer legal theory, case law, and legislation, readings allow students to connect historical regulation of sex and gender with current events. The course explores the ways in which gender, race, class, disability, and immigration status affect how different communities experience gendered law and legal systems. This course provides a foundation for advanced coursework in gender and law, including sex-based discrimination, reproduction, sexuality and gender identity, human rights, and comparative or international law.