Michigan Journal of Gender & Law最新文献

{"title":"Defining Sexual Orientation: A Proposal for a New Definition","authors":"Andrew Park","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.29.1.defining","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.29.1.defining","url":null,"abstract":"Laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation are becoming more common in all parts of the world. Few of these laws provide useful definitions of the term sexual orientation. As a result, the meaning and impact of these laws remains unclear. This Article reviews past and current definitions of sexual orientation according to how well they incorporate current empirical knowledge of sexual orientation, and how their use in human rights laws impacts the dignity, right to equality, and human development of sexual minorities. The Article gives particular attention to the definition of sexual orientation found in the Yogyakarta Principles which has been adopted by a number of jurisdictions throughout the world. Because this definition views sexual orientation through a heteronormative lens, its use restricts sexual freedoms and undermines the dignity of individuals with non-confirming sexual orientations. The Article proposes a multidimensional definition of sexual orientation grounded in current scientific knowledge of how sexual orientation is manifested in the lives of sexual minorities.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133778754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advancing Reproductive Justice in Latin America Through a Transitional Justice Lens","authors":"R. Algora","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.28.2.advancing","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.28.2.advancing","url":null,"abstract":"Reproductive autonomy is a pivotal part of women’s access to equal citizenship, yet it has not been included in any international nor regional human rights treaty. In the past decades, the U.N. Committees, notably the CEDAW Committee, and regional human rights bodies, particularly the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights, have timidly advanced reproductive justice through their jurisprudence, including through the use of reparations. Drawing from the standards of reparations developed in the field of transitional justice, human rights bodies increasingly rely on reparations to enhance the transformative effects of their decisions. These reparations intend to include a gender-perspective in their design and aim to ensure the non-repetition of human rights violation, not only to the victim, but to society. Constitutional courts in Latin America are increasingly relying on the standards of reparations in their own decisions, including in those on reproductive justice. In this Article, I analyze two recent rulings from Latin American constitutional courts–one from Colombia and one from Ecuador–to understand how courts can use reparations to advance reproductive justice. I analyze these particular rulings for two reasons: (1) Both rulings have the potential to develop reproductive jurisprudence in the region where high courts have traditionally imported international and comparative law to resolve legal debates over reproductive rights; and (2) Both rulings challenge the traditional concept of reparations and offer an opportunity to rethink how the remedy can be deployed in a human rights context.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"23 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120817928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Constructing Race and Gender in Modern Rape Law: The Abandoned Category of Black Female Victims","authors":"Jacqueline Pittman Pittman","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.30.1.constructing","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.30.1.constructing","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the successes of the 1960s Anti-Rape Movement, modern state rape statutes continue to prioritize white male perspectives and perceptions of race, ultimately ignoring the intersectional identity of Black women and leaving these victims without legal protection. This Note examines rape law’s history of allocating agency along gendered and racialized lines through statutory construction and other discursive techniques. Such legal constructions both uphold and cultivate the white victim/Black assailant rape dyad primarily by making the Black male the “ultimate” and most feared assailant. Rape law’s adherence to a white baseline sustains stereotypes of Black men as criminals and predators, which ultimately relegates Black women to a category of lesser and undeserving victims. Re-focusing rape reform and feminist movements on Black female experiences, as well as a rhetorical restructuring of rape laws, can improve rape law uniformity and remove white normativity standards. A departure from the current rhetorical and realized white baseline can eliminate rape law’s delineations of femininity that silence women of color.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"233 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132895494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Title IX and \"Menstruation or Related Conditions\"","authors":"M. Karin, Naomi Cahn, E. Cooper, Bridget J. Crawford, M. Johnson, E. Waldman","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.30.1.title","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.30.1.title","url":null,"abstract":"itle IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (“Title IX”) prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. Neither the statute nor its implementing regulations explicitly define “sex” to include discrimination on the basis of menstruation or related conditions such as perimenopause and menopause. This textual absence has caused confusion over whether Title IX must be interpreted to protect students and other community members from all types of sex-based discrimination. It also calls into question the law’s ability to break down systemic sex-based barriers related to menstruation in educational spaces. Absent an interpretation that there is explicit Title IX coverage, menstruation will continue to cause some students to miss instruction. Other students may be denied access to a menstrual product or a restroom as needed and face health consequences. They also may be teased and bullied after menstrual blood visibly leaks onto their clothes. Employees, who are also covered by Title IX, may be fired for damaging school property as a result of such leaks.1 People in perimenopause may be denied reasonable modifications like bathroom access, water, or temperature control. Collectively, this creates an educational system that prevents students, faculty, or employees from fully participating in educational institutions and causes harm.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115363212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Making Mandates Last: Increasing Female Representation on Corporate Boards in the U.S.","authors":"Nikki Williams","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.29.2.making","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.29.2.making","url":null,"abstract":"A lack of female representation on corporate boards has plagued our country for decades. Until a few years ago, there was not a single state or federal regulation that required corporations to fill board seats with female directors. Instead, the federal government talked around the issue. In 2010, the SEC established an optional reporting structure for corporations to communicate their hiring practices, but did little else. With no national plan in place, many states implemented legislation that urged corporations to hire female directors. But this legislation barely moved the needle. The country needed a mandate. And in 2018, California implemented the first one – SB 826. SB 826 required each publicly held corporation with executive offices in California to place specific numbers of women on its board, depending on the board’s size. The private sector quickly followed, with institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Nasdaq announcing that in order to receive funding or list on its exchange, corporations must have at least one female director. After SB 826 was enacted, the number of women on California boards more than doubled. And many states are now using SB 826 as a model to enact similar bills. But while SB 826 saw few legal challenges overall, in May 2022, it was overturned under California’s Equal Protection Clause. Even if this decision is appealed, states looking to follow California’s lead should be cautious of another threat to such a mandate’s longevity – the internal affairs doctrine. The internal affairs doctrine is a conflict of laws principle that establishes that the state law of incorporation governs a company’s internal affairs. More than half of the corporations in the U.S. are incorporated in Delaware, leaving state statutes highly vulnerable to being rendered ineffective. It is clear that mandates work. But when mandates are put in place, they should stay in place. In this Note, I propose two alternative solutions [to the female representation problem] that would increase female participation on corporate boards. First, even if Equal Protection challenges ultimately fail, rather than relying on sporadic state statutes, stakeholders should pressure Delaware to enact a corporate code that would mandate female representation on corporate boards. Second, to circumvent Equal Protection challenges altogether, the private sector should expand its mandates to consider the number of female directors in relation to the size of each board, similarly to SB 826.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117115757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Trek to Triumph","authors":"Briaunna Buckner","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.28.2.trek","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.28.2.trek","url":null,"abstract":"I was screaming in the stairwell of my home, holding a dead baby. The air was so thick that I could barely breathe. Tears were racing down my face as her twin sister, Zola, was screeching at the top of her lungs. “WHY LORD, don't take my baby!” Every emotion, every word, and every second after that moment felt black. All the sweet memories from just eight days of being able to hold her, kiss her, and love her fell in a black pit along with the dreams I had for my life. As I looked down at my sweet Zaina, I could not help but see at that moment that we were the same—lifeless.\u0000\u0000I rode to the hospital in the front of the ambulance while EMS performed CPR on her in the back. I kept repeating “breathe baby, please, just choose to live,” hoping that she would hear me and fight for her life. As the double doors to the emergency room swung open, the doctor took one look at her, and I could tell it was not good. My knees gave out and I fell onto the floor. It was so cold. There was nothing left that I could do. As I struggled to gather the strength to pick myself up from the cold ground, I realized something: nothing that could happen to me for the rest of my life is worse than this. Nothing is worse than losing a child. This was my biggest fear, and I was staring face-to-face with it at age twenty-three.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116326073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surrogacy and Parenthood: A European Saga of Genetic Essentialism and Gender Discrimination","authors":"M. Levy","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.29.1.surrogacy","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.29.1.surrogacy","url":null,"abstract":"This paper tells a story of shifting normativities, from tradition to modernity and back, regarding the recognition of legal parenthood in non-traditional families created through crossborder surrogacy. The cross-border nature of the surrogacy is often forced as most domestic legal frameworks in Europe still restrict the creation of non-traditional families through assisted reproductive technologies. Once back home, these families struggle to have birth certificates recognized and establish legal parenthood. The disjuncture between social reality and domestic law creates a situation of legal limbo. In its recent case law, the European Court of Human Rights has pushed for domestic authorities to rectify this situation but, at the same time, has filled the legal limbo with genetic essentialism and allowed for gender discrimination when recognizing legal parenthood. While giving full effect to a genetic father’s foreign birth certificate based on identity and best interests arguments, the Court accepts that a genetic mother must adopt to establish a legal parent-child relationship. The paper critically addresses this intriguing imbalance. It deconstructs the Court’s genetic essentialism encouraging a biologically determined view of parenting, which sidelines the social (i.e., non-genetically related) parent and contradicts the purpose of assisted reproduction to overcome biological barriers. The paper concludes by rejecting the gender-discriminatory element of power and control over legal motherhood imposed by the procedural step of adoption.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126496570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gender and Corporate Crime: Do Women on the Board of Directors Reduce Corporate Bad Behavior?","authors":"Ido Baum, Dalit Gafni, R. Lazar","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.29.2.gender","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.29.2.gender","url":null,"abstract":"Public debate on mandating gender representation on boards of directors in the United States is close to a boiling point. California introduced a mandatory quota in 2018 only to see it constitutionally disqualified in 2022, and the Nasdaq Stock Market followed suit with new diversity rules in 2021 for all corporations listed on the exchange. While public discourse focuses on corporate performance, not much is known about the link between gender diversity and corporate normative obedience.\u0000\u0000In this study we explore the relationship between boardroom gender representation and corporate compliance with the law. We examine the impact of gender diversity on corporate obedience in a sample of 660 public corporations. Our findings indicate that gender diversity has a substantial positive impact on corporate compliance. Notably, every one percent increase in female representation on the board is associated with at least a four percent decrease in the probability that the corporation will be associated with a violation of the law.\u0000\u0000The key contributions of this Article to the literature are threefold: First, the findings of this Article call for an empirical reevaluation of gendered theories of female white-collar offenders. Second, this Article adds a unique perspective to the broad discussion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects of corporate purpose. Third, this Article sheds innovative light on the discussion about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the means to enhance it.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132440467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cruel Dilemmas in Contemporary Fertility Care: Problematizing America's Failure to Assure Access to Fertility Preservation for Trans Youth","authors":"Anna B. Reed","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.29.1.cruel","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.29.1.cruel","url":null,"abstract":"Transgender youth are increasingly able to access gender-affirming healthcare. Because gender-affirming care such as hormone therapy is clinically shown to reduce gender dysphoria and ease physical and social transition, every major U.S. medical association recognizes that gender-affirming healthcare is medically necessary for the treatment of dysphoria. However, an important dimension of gender-affirming care remains under-insured and overpriced: fertility preservation (FP). Several studies indicate that hormone therapies and certain gender-affirming surgeries can have negative, long-term impacts on future fertility. Although these impacts can be mitigated through approved FP methods such as sperm cryopreservation and oocyte cryopreservation, such methods are rarely affordable for those who need them.\u0000\u0000These cost barriers largely exist because fertility care (including FP) remains excluded from most public and private insurance plans. Even though states have the regulatory authority to remedy this, only seventeen have taken steps to do so. This paper will demonstrate how the failure to provide coverage for fertility care forces young people into cruel dilemmas. Because gender-affirming care is, itself, expensive, paying additional out-of-pocket fees for FP is often not in the cards for many young people. Section I will delve into the landscape of FP coverage in the U.S. and the barriers that prevent people from accessing FP services. Section IV will then connect the lack of insurance coverage to a broader pattern of state efforts to withhold and eliminate child-bearing capacity, either directly or indirectly, from marginalized communities. Finally, Section III will offer legal and policy recommendations that could disrupt this history of reproductive oppression, and secure greater access to bodily autonomy for trans youth.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123018087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Right to Informed Consent, Right to a Doula: An Evidence-Based Solution to the Black Maternal Mortality Crisis in the United States","authors":"Cecilia Landor","doi":"10.36641/mjgl.30.1.right","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36641/mjgl.30.1.right","url":null,"abstract":"This Note seeks to build on existing research about how to improve childbirth in the United States for women, particularly for Black women, given the United States’ extremely high maternal mortality rate. Through examining the history and characteristics of American and Western childbirth, it seeks to explore how the current birth framework contributes to maternal mortality. To fight this ongoing harm, I suggest increasing access to doulas— nonmedical support workers who provide “continuous support” to the birthing person.\u0000\u0000Through this Note I seek to build on the research of others by identifying the ways medicalized birth practices fail women, particularly Black women, and possible solutions to this crisis. To that end, I examine the pathologization of childbirth, paternalism in medicine, and how the history of early gynecologists’ experimentation on enslaved Black women reverberates in the context of birth today, as both a cause of ongoing medical racism and paternalism, and as a symptom of misogyny, misogynoir, and racism.\u0000\u0000Furthermore, this Note builds on existing work in this field by suggesting a solution that has become more popular in recent years: the use of doulas to improve labor and childbirth. I identify why doulas are such an excellent tool to combat the current issues that plague women’s pregnancy and births in this country, specifically against a backdrop of how medical paternalism, racism, and the law have hamstrung women’s ability to safely birth. Finally, I suggest a workable solution to increase the usage of doulas by women who most need support: adding doulas to the “maternity and newborn care” essential health benefit, one of ten essential health benefits private insurers are required to cover under the ACA.","PeriodicalId":303089,"journal":{"name":"Michigan Journal of Gender & Law","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124756989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}