When Sex Counts
Making Babies and Making Law
Published on 15. May 2007
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-7425-5150-3 (ISBN)
Description
Should a woman who refuses a 'medically necessary' C-section be prosecuted for the murder of her stillborn child? Should a pregnant drug-addict be arrested for distributing narcotics to a minor? Why do people continue to frown upon public breastfeeding, when the law protects it as a mother's right? Is date rape a less serious harm than stranger rape? Does an employer who requires female, but not male, employees to wear makeup discriminate on the basis of sex? Should employers protect women from hazardous work conditions solely on the grounds that they may become pregnant? Through these ripped-from-the-headlines, contemporary examples, law professor and legal commentator Sherry Colb explores the current terrain of the battle between the sexes. In her intriguing and ever-so-timely book, she makes a compelling social, legal, and political case for taking a person's sex into account for some matters but not for all.
While unspoken biases persist in government agencies, in the courts, in business, and elsewhere, When Sex Counts takes a hard look at sex discrimination and examines how emerging law and public policy grapple with the differences between the sexes while simultaneously struggling to maintain a commitment to equal treatment under the law.
While unspoken biases persist in government agencies, in the courts, in business, and elsewhere, When Sex Counts takes a hard look at sex discrimination and examines how emerging law and public policy grapple with the differences between the sexes while simultaneously struggling to maintain a commitment to equal treatment under the law.
Reviews / Votes
A beautifully written and brilliant exploration of gender in American society. Professor Colb tackles all of the hard questions in a series of provocative and insightful essays about some of the most important and intimate aspects of our lives. A must read for all who care about issues of gender, sexuality, and reproduction. -- Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law In her feisty and informative exploration of pregnancy, rape, and sex discrimination, Sherry Colb flips the familiar conclusion of 'no easy answers' to the more challenging premise of 'no easy questions.' Are pro-life feminists feminist? Is male circumcision gender violence? Should assisted reproduction be prohibited? In clear staccato chapters, When Sex Counts offers readers thoughtful and thought-provoking analyses of the toughest issues now confronting women and men as their lives intersect with law. -- Carol Sanger, Barbara Aronstein Black Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School With deft writing, clear thinking, and deep knowledge, Sherry Colb illuminates the dark intersection of law and sex. She displays both journalistic verve and scholarly rigor. The result is a wonderful book that makes advanced thinking about complex controversies nicely accessible to the general reader. -- Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and author of <I>Interracial Intimacies<I> What sets Sherry Colb's book apart and renders it particularly valuable is its distinctly feminist methodology. Colb develops a theory of equality from the ground up. She analyzes how a society committed to equality should respond to actual cases that are literally ripped from the headlines, but, at the same time, her analysis is not limited to specifics. In the process of offering concrete answers to difficult cases, she also develops a broader theory of sex equality. While Colb's theory is necessarily messier, more contingent and more qualified than the theories promulgated from 'on high,' it is also more robust, satisfying, and socially useful. As such, it is an important and much needed contribution to both political and philosophical debates about sex equality. -- Kimberly Yuracko, Northwestern University School of Law * Findlaw's Writ *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Adult education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7425-5150-3 (9780742551503)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sherry F. Colb is a Professor of Law and Judge Frederick Lacey Scholar at Rutgers University School of Law. A former law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, she is a regular columnist for FindLaw's Writ, a mainstream online source for legal commentary.
Content
Chapter 1 Preface Part 2 I. Pregnancy and Its Discontents: Ignoring the Intimate Link between Mother and Fetus Chapter 3 1. To Murder a Child by Refusing a C-section Chapter 4 2. Drug-Dealing to Unborn Children Chapter 5 3. The Inadvertent Murder of an Ex-Girlfriend's Fetus Chapter 6 4. Kidnapping Unborn Children from their Murdered Mothers Chapter 7 5. Adopting Embryos from the Frozen Orphanage Chapter 8 6. Are "Feminists for Life" Feminists for Real? Chapter 9 7. Sending Out Partial Birth Announcements: Pro-Life Symbolism and Deception Chapter 10 8. Pro-Life Bullies and Mentally Retarded Women Chapter 11 9. Forcing Pregnant Women to "Know" about Fetal Pain Chapter 12 10. The "Minor" Issue of Abortion Chapter 13 11. Who Gets Custody When the Fertility Clinic Makes a Mistake? Chapter 14 12. Is That Egg Donor My Mommy? Chapter 15 13. Battles Over Public Breastfeeding Chapter 16 14. What Kind of Mother Would Drown Her Children Part 17 II. Normalizing Rape: The Presumption of Intimacy between Women and Men Chapter 18 15. A Female Serial Killer's Claims of Rape Chapter 19 16. Are Rapists Too Good for the Death Penalty? Chapter 20 17. Date Rape and the Presumption of Innocence Chapter 21 18. What's Wrong with Date Rape? Chapter 22 19. Can a Woman Say "No" If She Has Already Said "Yes"? Chapter 23 20. The Rapist Who Got Away: The Injustice of Statues of Limitations Chapter 24 21. Jailbait: When "Yes" Means "No" Chapter 25 22. When Cops Cop a Feel: National Security and Women's Privacy Part 26 III. What Is Sex Discrimination? Chapter 27 23. Bartenders without Blush Chapter 28 24. And Ain't I A Woman? Chapter 29 25. Why Gay-Bashing Is Sex Discrimination Chapter 30 26. Single People Seeking Babies: Can the Law Ban Them from Assisted Reproduction? Chapter 31 27. A Woman's Right to Birth Control Coverage Chapter 32 28. The FDA Plays Politics with the Morning-After Pill Chapter 33 29. Do Pharmacists Have a Right to "Choose" Not to Fill Prescriptions? Chapter 34 30. Killing a Fetus on Account of Her Sex Chapter 35 31. When Oral Sex Results in a Pregnancy: Can Men Ever Escape Paternity Obligations? Chapter 36 32. Should Men Have the Right to a "Financial Abortion"?: Chapter 37 33. Can a Court Order a Deadbeat Dad to Stop Having Children? Chapter 38 34. The Many Meanings of "Reverse Discrimination" Chapter 39 35. Is Male Circumcision Gender-Based Violence? Chapter 40 36. Abortion By Baseball Bat Chapter 41 Conclusion