On the Basis of Sex: Gender & the Constitution in U.S. History

Catalog description

"I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks." In her first argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, the future justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered this memorable quote from nineteenth-century activist, Sarah Grimke. The quote captured the long arc of the struggle against sex discrimination and the debate over whether women needed special favor or untrammeled freedom to achieve equality. Putting Ginsburg's comments in context, this course examines the history of gender and the U.S. Constitution from the Reconstruction era to the present. We will examine the evolving meaning of discrimination "on the basis of sex" and the constitutional revisions and reinterpretations required to combat it. We will focus on developments under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process and equal protection clauses, but we will also discuss the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment and the decades-long battle over the Equal Rights Amendment. At every step, we will consider how gender and racial equality are intertwined, and we will examine the ways in which feminists' legal strategies succeeded and failed in drawing analogies between race and sex and in centering the voices of women of color. Additionally, we will discuss the stakes of these constitutional debates in shaping the future of reproductive rights and transgender rights. Readings will include landmark legal decisions, historical documents, and secondary sources.