Gender and the Law Prof Blog

CFP Con Law Center Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

Call for Papers: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron
Virtual Symposium (online)
Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, 9am to 5pm

This year celebrates 150 years of the Fifteenth Amendment, 100 years of the Nineteenth Amendment, 55 years of the Voting Rights Act, and just over 55 years of Title VII. Each of these laws brought some systemic change to the participation of Black citizens in the polity. This symposium will explore the ways in which the reconstructed Constitution intended or neglected to establish political and civil citizenship rights regardless of race. Drawing on current social movements like Black Lives Matter, MeToo, SayHerName, and Defund the Police, this academic discussion reflects on the role of law in creating, sustaining, and resolving the identified problems.

Topics for presentation in the broad umbrella of this symposium might include: how social movements transform or engage the law, how academics translate social movements, a reconstructed history of the 15th or 19th Amendment, the Jim Crow and Jane Crow eras and their continuing effects, current battles for voting rights regarding felons, polling restrictions, and other limitations with disparate impact, intersectional dimensions of justice including Black feminism, the causes and consequences of Black Lives Matter, vestiges of slavery, reparations for slavery, policing reform, mass incarceration, judicial remedies for citizenship violations, and/or the gendered differences of black citizenship rights.

The Virtual Symposium is sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress on the bicentennial for the purpose of promoting scholarship and education on matters of constitutional law. The Center includes five affiliated faculty fellows, student fellows, an online journal, ConLawNOW, a JD certificate program in constitutional law, a social justice project, and a Masters of Law in social justice.

Papers presented will be published in a symposium edition of ConLawNOW. ConLawNOW is an online, open-access journal that is also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein. It is designed to publish shorter works of 10-20 pages within a short editorial timeframe to get scholarship into the public discourse more quickly. Recent authors published in ConLawNOW include Larry Solum, Paula Monopoli, Ernie Young, Harold Koh, Helen Norton, Judge Jeffrey Sutton, Ruthann Robson, and Julie Suk.

Those interested in presenting a paper should submit a proposal detailing the intended presentation to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by December 1.  Draft papers should then be submitted by January 20, 2021 for circulation among the other participants for the symposium. Final papers will be due by March 1, 2021, and expected to publish by early April.

Symposium 9/25: Two Centuries of the Equal Rights Amendment

Symposium, Fri. Sept. 25, Two Centuries of the Equal Rights Amendment, University of Florida School of Law

Please join scholars, legislators, and practitioners on Friday, September 25 for the Symposium, Two Centuries of the Equal Rights Amendment. This Symposium addresses many questions left unanswered after the recent ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by Virginia. It has taken 97 years for the ERA to meet the technical requirements of Article V. But will it take its rightful place as the Twenty-Eighth Amendment? And will it be Congress, or the courts, that make it happen?

Please visit the Symposium website for a detailed schedule. This Symposium may be attended on a per panel basis and is free and open to the public. Please register to receive the Zoom link and Outlook invitation. 6.5 Florida CLEs pending.

Zoom Webinar The Centenary of the 19th Amendment: New Reflections on the History and Future of Gender, Representation, and Citizenship Rights

Zoom webinar at Boston University School of Law, Friday, September 25, “The Centenary of the 19^th Amendment: New Reflections on the History and Future of Gender, Representation, and Citizenship Rights.” The speakers include law professors, political scientists, and political practitioners, and Rachel B. Tiven, a/k/a The Daily Suffragist. Here is the link for the program and registration:

https://www.bu.edu/law/2020/01/29/19th-amendment-program/

Several papers from the conference will appear in a mini-symposium issue of the Boston University Law Review, Volume 100, Issue 5, due out in October 2020:

https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/forthcoming/

NY Times Special Issue on Women's Suffrage and the 19th Amendment Challenges Myths and Offers More Inclusive Version of the Legal History

The NY Times features this special section on women's suffrage on the 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage:

 

 

The 19th Amendment: An Important Milestone in an Unfinished Journey

Historians who specialize in voting rights and African-American women’s history have played a welcome and unusually public role in combating the myths that have long surrounded the women’s suffrage movement and the 19th Amendment, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Tuesday.

In the lead-up to this centennial, these same campaigning historians have warned against celebrations and proposed monuments to the suffrage movement that seemed destined to render invisible the contributions of African-American women like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells — all of whom played heroic roles in the late 19th- and early 20th-century struggles for women’s rights and universal human rights. In addition to speaking up for Black women of the past, these scholars have performed a vital public service by debunking the most pernicious falsehood about the 19th Amendment: that it concluded a century-long battle for equality by guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Americans who imbibed this fiction in civics classes are caught off guard when they hear the more complicated truth — that millions of women had won voting rights before the 19th Amendment was ratified, and millions more remained shut out of the polls after ratification. Indeed, as middle-class white women celebrated ratification by parading through the streets, African-American women in the Jim Crow South who had worked diligently for women’s rights found themselves shut out of the ballot box for another half century — and abandoned by white suffragists who declared their mission accomplished the moment middle-class white women achieved the franchise.

As the distinguished historian Nancy Hewitt has shown, a lengthy campaign and a range of subsequent laws was required to fully open ballot access to others, including Black women, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, Chinese-Americans and Korean-Americans. Among those necessary laws were the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 and the adoption of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the 24th Amendment in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, along with its amendments of 1970 and 1975. In other words, the 19th Amendment was one step in a long, racially fraught battle for voting rights that seemed secure a few decades ago but face a grave threat today.

Spotlight: Suffrage at 100

Including:

Maya Salam, How Queer Women Powered the Suffrage Movement

Martha Jones, Tackling a Century-Old Mystery: Did my Grandmother Vote?

Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, For Black Suffragists, the Lens Was a Mighty Sword

Meet the Brave, but Overlooked Women of Color Who Fought for the Vote

Cathleen Cahill & Sarah Deer, In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote: Here's What was Next

Virtual Conference: The 15th & 19th Amendments on the Anniversary of their Ratifications

Massachusetts Historical Society, “Shall Not Be Denied”: The 15th and 19th Amendments at the Sesquicentennial and Centennial of Their Ratifications

“Shall Not Be Denied”: The 15th and 19th Amendments at the Sesquicentennial and Centennial of their Ratifications, October 12-16, 2020

Registration opens in August!

As a result of ongoing public health concerns, the Massachusetts Historical Society has altered its original plan for an in-person conference in October 2020. Rather than meeting for two days of sessions, we will host the conference panels online between Monday, 12 October and Friday, 16 October 2020. The originally scheduled keynote panel will be postponed until it is safe to hold the event in person at the MHS.

Download Conference Schedule 

The year 2020 marks the anniversaries of two critical amendments to the United States Constitution. Spaced fifty years apart, the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, ratified in 1870 and 1920, respectively, prohibited the use of race or sex to deny American citizens the franchise. However, the amendments did not prevent states from adopting other methods of discrimination. Viewed as the product of two different movements—abolitionism and the Civil War on the one hand and the Progressive campaigns and the First World War on the other—these two periods and amendments are not often considered together. This conference revisits the long journey to secure voting rights for African Americans and women in United States history. It considers the legal precedents and hurdles that each amendment faced, the meaning and uneven outcomes of each, the social context that allowed for ultimate ratification, the role of key individuals and groups in these respective contexts, and how each amendment has been remembered over time.

At a later date, a keynote panel will feature feature Profs. Alison M. Parker (University of Delaware) and Lisa Tetrault (Carnegie Mellon University) and will be moderated by Prof. Alex Keyssar (Harvard).

Webinar: Past, Present and Future of the Law and Politics of Reproduction

The Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law is sponsoring a webinar with the Harvard Law and Policy Review on the past, present, and future of the law and politics of reproduction on June 30, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. ET.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, June Medical Services v. Russo, we are convening the authors of four influential books on reproductive justice and health, Professors David S. Cohen, Michele Goodwin, Carol Sanger, and Mary Ziegler, for a timely conversation moderated by NPR’s Sarah McCammon. There will be time for questions from participants. 

To register for the webinar, please visit https://bit.ly/JuneMedicalCPHLR. 

What I'm Watching Today, Thursday, at Law & Society on Gender & Law

Law & Society Association, Virtual Conference Program

Gender and Punishment

May 28 - 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM
Moving away from antiquated perspectives that neglected to study gender because there were "so few" women in the criminal justice system, these papers use feminist perspectives to examine disparate treatment, gender gaps, and punitivism.
Chair/Discussant(s) Rupali Samuel, LLM, Harvard Law School

Gender Equality and the Shifting Gap in Female-To-Male Incarceration Rates Presenter(s) Heather McLaughlin, Oklahoma State University Co-Presenter(s) Sarah Shannon, University of Georgia
Negotiating Criminal Records: Access to Employment for Reintegrating Women in Canada Presenter(s) Anita Grace, Carleton University
The Gap Between Correctional Law & Practice: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis Presenter(s) Alexis Marcoux Rouleau, Université de Montréal
The Gendered Economy of Prison Intimacy Presenter(s) Joss Greene, Columbia University

 

Moving Rules: Struggles for Reproductive Justice on Uneven Terrain

May 28 - 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM
Moving Rules will consider how recent developments in the struggle for reproductive justice in Argentina, Poland, Ireland and Mozambique contribute to our understanding of legal rules as complex entities that move as they are made. The papers will consider how rules move across space and time as they are made through feminist cause lawyering, witnessing legal reproduction, communist legacies, and oppositional legal consciousness.
Chair(s) Paola Bergallo, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Discussant(s) Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University of London
Presentations

Building Democracy and Legal Change: A Study of Feminist Cause Lawyering in Argentina Presenter(s) Paola Bergallo, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
We Were Communists - Historical, Political, and Ideological Determinants of Sexual Reproductive Rights Presenter(s) Carmeliza Rosario, CMI / Centre on Law and Social Transformation
Witnessing Legal Reproduction Presenter(s) Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University of London

 

Sexual Harassment: Victims and Survivors

May 28 - 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM

Sexual harassment and violence are pervasive problems in various institutional spheres. Many victims and survivors are discounted and ignored. The papers in this session explore a range of questions involving victims and survivors of sexual harassment, such as: what obstacles has the #MeToo movement encountered when confronting sexual assault and harassment in the military? What roles do and should victim impact statements have in revealing systemic institutional sexual abuse in specific cases and shaping broader policy to meet the needs of victims? What role does time have in shaping a victim's experience of sexual violence? Does the law represent an adequate feminist response to such violence? How do innovative multi-media exhibits,provide new ways for observers and bystanders to listen to survivors' stories and experiences?
Chair(s) Julie Goldscheid, City University of New York
Discussant(s) I. India Thusi, California Western School of Law
Presentations

#MeToo, Confronts Culture, and Complicity in the Military Presenter(s) Rachel Van Cleave, Golden Gate University School of Law
From "Larry" the "Monster" to Sisterhood: What the Nassar Victim Impact Statements Reveal About Systemic Institutional Sexual Abuse Presenter(s) Jamie Abrams, University of Louisville Non-Presenting Co-Author(s) Amanda Potts, University of Cardiff
Multiracial Women, Sexual Harassment, and Gender-Based Violence Presenter(s) Nancy Cantalupo, Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law
Sexual Harassment, Workplace Culture, and the Power and Limits of Law Presenter(s) Suzanne Goldberg, Columbia University

 

Female Judges in Five Fragile States

May 28 - 02:15 PM - 04:00 PM
In post-conflict and transitional developing countries, situations of political rupture may create new opportunity structures that favour the entry of women into public positions of power. Post-conflict assistance often includes gender friendly rule of law reforms, and the conflict itself may have placed rights issues in focus. How these conditions affect women's access to, and utilization of, positions of judicial power has not received much scholarly attention. This session explores three main questions regarding women judges in five fragile and conflict-related states: Angola, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Haiti, and Uganda: (1) What are the main pathways of women judges to the bench? (2) What are the gendered experiences of women on the bench? (3) How and in what ways does having more women on the bench impact on judicial outcomes?
Chair(s) Paola Bergallo, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Discussant(s) Ulrike Schultz, Fernuniversitat in Hagen

Presentations

Female Judges in Angola: When Party Affiliation Trumps Gender Presenter(s) Elin Skaar, Chr. Michelsen Institute Non-Presenting Co-Author(s) Aslak Orre, Chr. Michelsen Institute
Women Magistrates in Haiti: Challenging Gender Inequality in a Frail Justice System Presenter(s) Marianne Tøraasen, Chr. Michelsen Institute
Women on the Bench in Afghanistan: Equal but Segregated? Presenter(s) Torunn Wimpelmann, Chr Michelsen Institute Non-Presenting Co-Author(s) Antonio De Lauri, Chr. Michelsen Institute
Women on the Bench in Guatemala: Between Professionalization and State Capture Presenter(s) Ana-Isabel Braconnier, University of Texas at Austin, Rachel Sieder, CIESAS
Women on the Bench – Perspectives from Uganda Presenter(s) Pilar Domingo, Overseas Development Institute Non-Presenting Co-Author(s) Siri Gloppen, University of Bergen

 

What I'm Watching Today at Law & Society on Gender & the Law

#MeToo: The Narrative of Resistance Meets the Rule of Law

May 27 - 01:00 PM - 02:45 PM
Plenary Session

The purpose of the panel is to explore the contemporary cultural, political, social, and legal space that #MeToo occupies, including its limitations and possibilities. Participants will also compare the #MeToo movement to other popular social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, drawing parallels and convergences, and engaging with some of the controversies that have accompanied #MeToo.

Moderator(s)

Julie Suk, The Graduate Center, CUNY



Chair(s)

Penelope Andrews, New York Law School



Participant(s)

Brenda Cossman, University of Toronto

Farnush Ghadery, King's College

Teri McMurtry Chubb, Mercer University School of Law

Ruthann Robson, City University of New York (CUNY School of Law)

Call for Papers Columbia Journal of Gender & Law: Symposium "Are You There Law, It's Me, Menstruation"

Feminist Law Profs, CFP Columbia Journal of Gender & Law Symposium: Are You There, Law? It's Me, Menstruation

Columbia Journal of Gender & Law: Symposium Announcement and Call for Papers

Are You There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation

The Columbia Journal of Gender & Law is pleased to announce a call for papers for its Spring 2021 symposium: Are You There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation.

 

This symposium explores the intersection of law and menstruation. Over half the population menstruates for a large portion of their lives, but the law has mostly been silent on the issue. Virtually all people with female biology menstruate, although not all who menstruate are girls or women. A truly inclusive law reform movement will take all who menstruate into account, without regard to race, economic class, age, or gender identity. A legal system that takes into account the biology of over half the population is the foundation for a more just society. 

 

Judy Blume’s young adult classic, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, first captured readers’ attention fifty years ago, but only recently have periods entered the public discourse. The “tampon tax”—the state sales tax on menstrual products—is currently the subject of multi-state litigation and legislative advocacy. Public awareness of the unfairness of the tax has inspired many people to start speaking and mobilizing about other obstacles, including the lack of employment-related accommodations for menstrual needs, the lack of access to safe and affordable products (particularly in schools and prisons), and the anxiety and harassment that menstruating students can face at school.  Increasingly, litigation is being brought about some of these issues, and some states and localities are also taking action on their own, notably by requiring free menstrual products in settings like prisons, schools, and shelters. “Period poverty”—being unable to afford menstrual products—remains an obstacle to school, work and full participation in public life. 

 

The Symposium will be held at Columbia Law School on April 9, 2021. The conference will include a full day of panel discussions and will be open to the public. The program concludes with a reception celebrating the journal’s thirtieth anniversary.

 

Papers

To be considered for a paper presentation at the symposium, please submit an abstract of your proposed paper by 5:00 p.m. on August 15, 2020 to columbia.jgl.submissions@gmail.com. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words and should relate to the conference theme.  Possible topics might include:

• Affordability, availability, or safety of menstrual products.
• Challenging the state sales tax on menstrual products.
• Menstruation-related discrimination and harassment in employment, education, and/or other contexts.
• Menstrual education in schools.
• Menstruation-related challenges unique to prisoners, incarcerated people, and visitors and employees in carceral facilities.
• Menstruation-related needs of homeless and low-income individuals and families.
• Cultural stigmas and taboos related to menstruation.
• Lawyering and social movements that are inclusive of all who menstruate, including trans boys and men, people with gender fluid identities, and people with non-binary gender identities.
• Research related to health issues connected with menstruation and menstrual products.
• Environmental issues related to menstruation, including access to water, disposal of menstrual products, and toxic chemicals used in menstrual products.
• Alternatives to commercial menstrual products, including micro-lending for financing of menstruation-related small businesses.
• Human rights concerns, including the right to dignity, the right to education, and/or the right to employment, and their connection to menstruation.
• The relationship of popular culture, including Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, to the understanding of menstruation.
• The use of female empowerment and feminist messaging in selling menstrual products and menstrual education.
• Menstrual-related activism, including litigation and legislative reform.
• Coalition-building between and among groups around issues related to menstruation.

Successful proposals will include a discussion of how the selected topic relates to the law. Interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives from outside the legal academy are very welcome.

Selected speakers will be notified by September 15, 2020.

 

Publication Opportunity

The selected speakers from this Call for Papers will have the opportunity to publish their papers in a special symposium issue of CJGL.  All such papers will be due by February 1, 2020.  They must be no more than 3,000 words and should be lightly-footnoted.  The abstracts will be posted to CJGL’s public website, and the complete versions may be made available prior to the symposium on a password-protected site to all symposium participants.

 

Registration and Transportation

There is no registration fee associated with the conference.  There are funds available to cover the reasonable transportation costs and accommodations for speakers coming from outside the New York metropolitan area. 

 

Short On-Line Essays

In connection with the symposium, CJGL invites expressions of interest in contributing short essays (100-500 words, including footnotes) on any aspect of law and menstruation, or reflections on the influence of Judy Blume’s book and its legacy for generations of readers. Essays will be hosted on the CJGL website beginning in early 2021 and are intended to be written for a general audience. We warmly welcome contributions from students, faculty, attorneys, activists, artists and others.  Contributions may take the form of personal reflections, cultural critiques or other menstruation-related topics of the author’s choice. Short essays do not have to be in a traditional academic format.

To be considered for contribution of a short essay, please submit a short (2-4) sentence proposal by 5:00 p.m. on August 15, 2020 to columbia.jgl.submissions@gmail.com. Selected contributors will be notified by September 15, 2020.

Final versions of short on-line essays will be due November 1, 2020.

 

Questions?

Questions about logistics of the program can be directed to CJGL Symposium Editor Jenna Rae Lauter: jrl2156@columbia.edu

Other questions can be directed to the Symposium’s faculty conveners: Professor Bridget Crawford (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University) bcrawford@law.pace.edu; Professor Emily Gold Waldman (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University) ewaldman@pace.edu; and Professor Margaret Johnson (University of Baltimore School of Law) majohnson@ubalt.edu.

Papers from the Feminist Legal Theory Research Network at Next Week's Law & Society Association Virtual Meeting

I am probably one of the few people in the world who is thrilled that the Law & Society Annual Conference is virtual -- since I will now be able to attend.  In general virtual conferences open up access to some barriers to participation due to finances,  travel, family, disability, and health issues.

You can register for the virtual conference here at the Law & Society Association website.  

Scheduled papers to be presented from the Feminist Legal Theory Research Network:

 

Time	Title	Type
Wed, 5/27 1:00 PM - 2:45 PM	#MeToo: The Narrative of Resistance Meets the Rule of Law	Plenary Session
Thu, 5/28 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Moving Rules: Struggles for Reproductive Justice on Uneven Terrain	Paper Session
Thu, 5/28 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Sexual Harassment: Victims and Survivors	Paper Session
Thu, 5/28 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM	CRN07: Feminist Legal Theory Business Meeting	Business Meeting
Thu, 5/28 2:15 PM - 4:00 PM	Families, Laws, and Institutions	Paper Session
Thu, 5/28 2:15 PM - 4:00 PM	The State and Violence: New Proposals for Stopping the Cycle	Paper Session
Fri, 5/29 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Normativity in Men, Women, and Bodies	Paper Session
Fri, 5/29 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	The Politicization of Safety: Critical Perspectives on Domestic Violence Responses	Roundtable Session
Fri, 5/29 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM	Sexual Harassers, Sex Crimes, and Accountability	Paper Session
Fri, 5/29 4:00 PM - 5:45 PM	Women's Rights in the Shadow of the Constitution	Paper Session
Sat, 5/30 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Perspectives on Sex, Work and New Legal Orders	Paper Session
Sat, 5/30 1:00 PM - 2:45 PM	Trans and Queer Life in Private and Public	Paper Session
Sat, 5/30 4:00 PM - 5:45 PM	Human Rights in an Unequal World: Autonomy, Status, and Other Stories	Paper Session
Sun, 5/31 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Feminist Legal Theory in a Public/Private World	Paper Session
Sun, 5/31 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM	Laws of Social Reproduction	Paper Session
Sun, 5/31 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM	Intimate Lies and the Law	Author Meets Reader (AMR) Session
Sun, 5/31 2:15 PM - 4:00 PM	Feminist Judgments on Reproductive Justice and Family Law	Roundtable Session
Sun, 5/31 2:15 PM - 4:00 PM	Women and Gender in Private, Public, and Places in Between: Old Doctrines Meet New Realities in the Twenty-First Century	Paper Session

Colorado Law Conference on the 19th Amendment and Women's Enfranchisement Moved Online

From the announcement: 

Please join Colorado Law for the 28^th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference, “Women’s Enfranchisement: Beyond the 19^th Amendment," which has been modified to take place remotely on Friday April 3rd, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. MT, through the use of a Zoom Webinar. The web-event is free, and has been approved for 6 general CLE credits.

2020 marks the centennial of the 19th Amendment, formally extending suffrage to some, but not all, women, and is a presidential election year with an unprecedented number of female candidates running for offices nationwide. But barriers to both political rights and social, lived equality persist, particularly for women at the intersections of race, sex, and class. This web-based conference will use the centennial to take stock of how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go—in terms of formal political enfranchisement, as well as the social and economic empowerment of women more broadly. 

Register here for the 2020 Rothgerber Conference, to receive important email updates, including the link needed to join the webinar. Participants will be able to use this link to join at any point during the conference. 

For more information on the panels and speakers please visit the CU Law Rothgerber event page.  We look forward to sharing this occasion with you!

Rothgerber Webinar Schedule | April 3, 2020

8:30-9:00am  Introductory Remarks by Suzette Malveaux (CU Law) 

9:00-10:00am  Keynote Address: Reva Siegel (Yale Law)

10:00-10:15am  BREAK

10:15am-12:00pm  PANEL 1

"Historical Perspectives on the 19th Amendment: Looking Back, Looking Forward”

• Susan Schulten (University of Denver)
• Carolyn Ramsey (Colorado Law)
• Julie Suk (CUNY)
• Mary Ziegler (FSU Law)

12:00-12:15pm  BREAK

12:15-2:00pm  PANEL 2

“Barriers to Political Representation”

• Bertrall Ross (Berkeley Law)
• Dara Strolovitch (Princeton)
• Atiba Ellis (Marquette Law)
• Ming H. Chen (Colorado Law)

2:00-2:15pm  BREAK

2:15-4:00pm  PANEL 3

“Lived Equality: Beyond Formal Political Rights”

• Aya Gruber (Colorado Law)
• Chinyere Ezie (Center for Constitutional Rights)
• Diana Flynn (Lambda Legal)
• Scott Skinner-Thompson (Colorado Law) 

4:00-4:30pm  Closing Remarks 

Virginia Passes Law Easing Restriction on Abortion Rights

NYT, Virginia Lawmakers Pass Bills Easing Abortion Restrictions

 Abortion restrictions that were enacted when Republicans controlled Virginia’s General Assembly are being undone in legislation approved by the Democrats who are now in charge.

 

The House on Thursday gave final passage to a bill that would roll back provisions including a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion and a requirement that women seeking an abortion undergo an ultrasound and counseling. The measure would also undo the requirement that abortions be provided by a physician, allowing nurse practitioners to perform them, and do away with strict building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed.

 

The Senate companion measure passed earlier in the week. The legislation now goes to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who supports it.

 

“When this legislation goes into effect, Virginians will no longer have to navigate an obstacle course of delays and barriers in order to access a safe and legal abortion,” said Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia.

 

The measures passed largely along party lines, with staunch opposition from Republicans and religious advocacy groups that testified against it in committee hearings.

 

Republican Del. Kathy Byron said in a floor speech Thursday that the changes would lead to women being less informed about “maybe one of the most important decisions that they ever make.”

 

“What we're doing today is we're voting to deny women complete information on what an abortion means, its consequences, its implications, its alternatives," she said.

With the Supreme Court Looming, Virginia Shores Up Abortion Rights

The law, passed Thursday in the House of Delegates, will repeal Virginia’s mandatory waiting period, which requires patients to wait 24 hours after a consultation to receive an abortion. It will allow certified nurse midwives and nurse practitioners to perform first-trimester abortion services and remove the requirement that providers give counseling to patients seeking abortions. It will also eliminate the requirement for an ultrasound before an abortion, a practice that can be traumatizing for patients. The American Medical Association says mandatory ultrasounds provide no “additional medically necessary information.” ***

 

“Those restrictions in the code were politically charged,” says Herring, “and it had nothing do with the provision of good care.” 

 

Democratic state lawmakers across the country have passed similar abortion protections in the past year, as attacks on abortion access have ramped up in conservative states. In 2019, nine states—Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Hawaii—passed legislation protecting or expanding the right to an abortion. Maine also voted to allow certified nurse midwives and nurse practitioners to provide non-surgical abortions. Four states codified Roe v. Wade by enshrining the right to an abortion in their state law.

 

Herring says she hopes Virginia will be the next state to codify the right to an abortion. She notes that there are a record number of women from both parties in the legislature. “When women are elected and in power,” she says, “there will be a tendency that we make sure that we are protecting our interests.” 

Conference: Women's Enfranchisement Beyond the 19th Amendment

Conference, Colorado Law, Women's Enfranchisement Beyond the 19th Amendment

 

The Ira C. Rothgerber Jr. Conference on Constitutional Law is an annual Byron R. White Center event that brings scholars and lawyers from across the nation to the University of Colorado Law School for a discussion on a current Constitutional law issue. Topics have included the future of national injunctions, listeners’ First Amendment rights, litigation strategies that promote Constitutional change, and Presidential interpretation of the Constitution.

The 28th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference is titled "Women's Enfranchisement: Beyond the 19th Amendment", and will be held on Friday, April 3rd, 2020 from 8:30am-5:00pm in the Wolf Law Building (2450 Kittredge Loop Dr, Boulder, CO 80305). 2020 will mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, formally extending suffrage to some, but not all, women, and is a presidential election year with an unprecedented number of female candidates. But barriers to both political rights and social, lived equality persist, particularly for women at the intersections of race, sex, and class.  The 28th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference will use the centennial to take stock of how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go—in terms of formal political enfranchisement as well as the social and economic empowerment of women more broadly.

CLE credit is available for this conference, and both breakfast and lunch will be served to attendees. 

Register Now

 

Schedule

Keynote Address: Reva Siegel (Yale Law)

PANEL 1: “Historical Perspectives on the 19th Amendment: Looking Back, Looking Forward”

Carolyn Ramsey (Colorado Law), Julie Suk (CUNY), Mary Ziegler (FSU Law), Susan Schulten (University of Denver)

PANEL 2: “Barriers to Political Representation”

Dara Strolovitch (Princeton), Atiba Ellis (Marquette Law), Bertrall Ross (Berkeley Law), Justin Levitt (Loyola Law), Ming H. Chen (Colorado Law)

PANEL 3: “Lived Equality: Beyond Formal Political Rights”

Aya Gruber (Colorado Law), Chinyere Ezie (Center for Constitutional Rights), Diana Flynn (Lambda Legal), Cary Franklin (UTexas Law), Scott Skinner-Thompson (Colorado Law) 

 

 

CFP Summer Conference in Florence, Italy: Women's Rights as Human Rights

Gonzaga University School of Law's 2020 human rights conference, Women's Rights as Human Rights, is confirmed for June 7-8, 2020 in Florence, Italy. The conference will open on June 7 with an evening keynote reception at Palazzo Budini Gattai in central Florence, sponsored by The Center for Civil and Human Rights at Gonzaga Law. Our keynote speaker is the Honorable Bernice Donald, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and former Chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights. On June 8, we will host our all-day program at the British Institute in Florence. We are holding five panels, starting with a plenary session, followed by concurrent panels that will address topics including gender and violence, online misogyny, and intersectionality and culture. We are thrilled that our confirmed speakers span the globe, with distinguished academics and lawyers from Argentina, Botswana, Croatia, Egypt, Great Britain, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, South Africa, Spain, and the United States.

Our speaker opening is on our panel, Technology, Speech, and Misogyny, a topic of intense importance and debate. Confirmed speakers on the panel include two highly published co-presenters from law schools in England and Scotland, a JD/PhD from the University of Houston Law Center, and Privacy Counsel at Common Sense Media. If you are interested, we can confirm that we can reimburse $500 of airfare and provide three nights at our conference speaker hotel, also in central Florence. We also charge no registration fee for speakers, and we include all speakers at the keynote reception, the conference luncheon, and our closing Tuscan dinner.

Interested individuals should submit a one-page abstract and CV to the conference chair, Professor Brooks Holland (hollandb@gonzaga.edu), no later than February 24, 2020.

Papers from the Symposium: The 19th Amendment at 100--From the Vote to Gender Equality

The Center for Constitutional Law at the University of Akron School of Law sponsored the conference The 19th Amendment at 100: From the Vote to Gender Equality (including video link of conference).  

Here are some of the papers from the conference: 

Ellen Carol DuBois, The 19th Amendment at 100: From the Vote to Gender Equality: Woman Suffrage: The Afterstory, 11 ConLawNOW 53 (2020)

Paula A. Monopoli, The 19th Amendment at 100: From the Vote to Gender Equality: The Constitutional Development of the Nineteenth Amendment in the Decade Following Ratification, 11 ConLawNOW 61 (2020)

Jamie R. Abrams & Nickole Durbin, The 19th Amendment at 100: Citizen Soldiers and the Foundational Fusion of Masculinity, Citizenship, and Military Service, 11 ConLawNOW 75 (2020)

Gwen Jordan, 19th Amendment at 100: "We Must Forget Every Difference and Unite in a Common Cause - Votes For Women": Lessons From the Woman Suffrage Movement (Or, Before the Notorius RBG, There Were the Notorious RBGs, 11 ConLawNOW (2020)

Ann D. Gordon, More Pathways to Suffrage, Other Than the 19th Amendment, 11 ConLawNOW 91 (2020)

Reva B. Siegel, The Nineteenth Amendment and the Democratization of the Family, Yale L.J. Forum (Jan. 20, 2020).

 

Additional papers from the conference are forthcoming in the Akron Law Review.

 

Conference: Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

2020 Berkshire Conference on Women

“Big Berks”

The 2020 “Big Berks” focuses on the histories of women, genders, and sexualities, and this year devotes special attention to a pressing theme of our current moment: the role of environment(s), ecologies, and natural systems broadly defined in the histories of women, genders, and sexualities. As we plan our meeting at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, a profoundly vibrant ecosystem where humans have gathered for millennia, we are reminded of the many ways in which the natural world has shaped human society. Its history also highlights the local and global connections of all places. This place is the homeland of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, and was home to Henrietta Lacks; it is the site of the Baltimore Fish market and a part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, a node in the Atlantic Flyway, and at the edge of the Atlantic World.

Our aim is to hold conversations that think through the intricate interplays among gender and sexuality, social and legal systems of power and political representation, and the material realities of an interconnected world continually shaped by physical nature, the human and nonhuman animals, plants, and other beings that inhabit that nature. If Earth’s history has indeed entered a new geological epoch termed the Anthropocene, where do the historical knowledges and experiences of women, people of diverse genders and sexualities, and people of color, along with environmental justice efforts in the historical past, enter into our efforts to understand, theorize, contextualize, and meet these existential problems? Read more >>

CFP Taxation and Gender Equality

Announcement of Conference and Call for Contributions

 Taxation and Gender Equality Conference:

Research Roundtable and Policy Program

 

As the Organizers and members of the Academic Advisory Committee we are pleased to issue this Announcement and Call for Contributions to an event that will be held on September 14 and 15, 2020, in Washington, DC, to explore the interaction between tax law and gender equality. The goal of the Conference, which is sponsored by the Tax Policy Center, the American Tax Policy Institute, the American Bar Foundation, and, subject to the final approval of their boards, the Tax Section of the American Bar Association and the American College of Tax Counsel, is to shine a spotlight on gender issues in taxation and to bring consideration of gender impacts into mainstream discussions surrounding the enactment and administration of tax laws. The intended scope of the Conference is broad, focusing not only on gender issues in U.S. tax law but also on gender issues in the tax laws of other countries; it will consider all taxes, whether income, consumption, transfer, wealth, or other national-level taxes, as well as subnational taxes.

The Conference will begin on Monday, September 14, 2020 at the Washington, DC, offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman with a research roundtable featuring principally academic papers. The research roundtable will follow the format typical of academic conferences, providing ample time for conversation among participants. 

The second day of the Conference, Tuesday, September 15, 2020, will be held at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, also in Washington, DC. It will consist of a policy-oriented program of panel discussions bringing together academics, practicing attorneys, economists, policy makers, legislators and others to consider issues related to gender and taxation and to consider strategies for incorporation of gender-related concerns into everyday tax policy discourse. At least one panel will feature the recent work undertaken by the National Women’s Law Center exploring the relationship between taxation and gender (see https://nwlc-ciw49tixgw5lbab.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/NWLC-Tax-Executive-Summary-Accessible.pdf).

We are now seeking participants interested in contributing either to the research roundtable or to the policy program (or to both). Participants can be legal academics, economists, legal practitioners, government officials, policy researchers, or others with an interest and expertise in tax law and its administration. Contributors from the United States as well as other countries are welcome.

Scholars, analysts and policymakers of all levels of seniority and from all disciplines are invited to submit proposals for consideration for inclusion in panel discussions.  We expect that for each day of the program, there will be approximately 5-10 speaking slots available. Contributions to be presented at the research roundtable should be works in progress, not published (or committed to publication) prior to the conference.  Contributions to be presented as part of the policy program may be works in progress or may be work published (or committed to publication) prior to the conference. A brief description of possible panel topics to be addressed in the policy program is provided below; please understand that this listing is intended to provide directional guidance on possible panel and research paper topics and should not be viewed as limiting the potential issues to be addressed.

Those interested in presenting at either the research roundtable or the policy program portion of the Conference should send an abstract of no more than 500 words describing their proposed presentation, an indication of whether the proposal is for the research roundtable or the policy program, and a copy of their CV to Alice Abreu at taxandgender@temple.edu. If the proposed panel presentation is based on a published or soon-to-be-published work, please also attach a copy or draft of the work. Expressions of interest are due by March 15, 2020. The Academic Advisory Committee expects to notify accepted participants by May 1, 2020. Accepted participants should submit circulation drafts of the work to be presented no later than August 14, 2020.  Selected participants may be invited to publish their completed papers in The Tax Lawyer or may choose to publish elsewhere. (The Tax Lawyer is the flagship scholarly journal published by the Tax Section of the American Bar Association and is published in cooperation with the Graduate Tax Program of the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law; it has a robust circulation both in print and through electronic access).

Limited funding may be available for reasonable travel expenses of those selected to present their work; in your expression of interest please indicate whether you will need financial assistance to participate in this event.  There is no fee for attending the conference. The conference will be webcast and is open to members of the public.

We look forward to hearing from many interested potential contributors.

Organizers: Julie Divola (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and American Tax Policy Institute), Elaine Maag (Tax Policy Center), and Alice Abreu (Temple Center for Tax Law and Public Policy and American Tax Policy Institute)

Academic Advisory Committee:  Alice Abreu (Temple), Bridget Crawford, (Pace) Anthony Infanti (Pittsburgh), Ariel Kleinman (San Diego), and Stephen Shay (Harvard)

POSSIBLE DISCUSSION TOPICS

The following is a representative list of panel topics for the policy program.  Final panel topics will be determined based upon the abstracts received in response to this Call for Contributions.

1. In general:  A review of the positive and negative (intentional and unintentional) impacts of tax laws on gender equality, including a broad discussion of the form such tax laws can take (e.g., the marriage penalty, deductions or exemptions for entrepreneurial efforts,  consumption vs. income taxes, wage withholding taxes, pink taxes, corporate tax expenditures). 

1. Impacts of U.S. tax laws on gender equality.  Possible topics for separate panels include:

1. Specific issues under the TCJA.
2. A comparisons of gender equality issues as reflected in the tax reform proposals advanced by the current presidential candidates.

1. One or more topics covered in three interrelated reports prepared by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) that examine the federal tax code with a focus on gender and racial equity and explore policies to make the tax code work for everyone.  (See (i) The Faulty Foundations of the Tax Code:  Gender and Racial Bias in Our Tax Laws, (ii) Reckoning with the Hidden Rules of Gender in the Tax Code: How Low Taxes on Corporations and the Wealthy Impact Women’s Economic Opportunity and Security and (iii) The Faulty Foundations of the Tax Code: Gender and Racial Bias in Our Tax Laws at https://nwlc.org/resources/gender-and-the-tax-code/.)  The papers were prepared by NWLC in collaboration with Groundwork Collaborative, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. 

1. Impact of U.S. tax administration (including collection and other enforcement efforts) on gender equality (e.g., innocent spouse relief).

1. Discussion of the economic impact of tax laws that influence gender equality (e.g., distributional effect on how income is distributed between the sexes and allocative effect on how paid and unpaid labor is allocated between the sexes).  General discussion of the connection between gender equality and economic growth.

1. Examination of tax systems in countries that have historically been more thoughtful than the United States on the question of taxation and gender equality, including measures such countries have taken to advance the issue.  For example, the German Technical Cooperative has a program to support OECD partner countries in their efforts to reform tax policy and tax administration to avoid or eliminate gender bias.

1. Examination of the impact of tax laws on gender equality in developing countries.  For example, the International Centre for Tax and Development with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has done research in this area.

1. Use of gender-neutral language in the tax law and government publications and encouraging equivalent use of names that suggest male, female, and indeterminate genders and the accompanying pronouns.

AALS Programs on the History and Modern Implications of the 19th Amendment

Legal History Section, A Century of Women's Suffrage

2020 marks one hundred years since the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, ushering in a century of women's suffrage in the United States. This program brings together scholars writing on the history of women's suffrage, including scholars who will explore the suffrage movement that culminated in the Nineteenth Amendment; address how the Nineteenth Amendment affected political parties in the subsequent century; and compare the women's suffrage movement to analogous social movements.

Speaker: Dr. Martha S. Jones, Johns Hopkins University

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Elizabeth D. Katz, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law

Speaker: Holly McCammon, Vanderbilt University Law School

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Kara W. Swanson, Northeastern University School of Law

 

Moderator: Evan C. Zoldan, University of Toledo College of Law

 

 

Women in Legal Education, A Century Since Suffrage: How Did We Get Here? Where Will We Go? How Will We Get There?

This session will explore the legal accomplishments and failures of the women’s movement since 1920. A century ago, women won the right to vote. Since then, women garnered additional rights in virtually every legal area, including in the realms of employment, property, reproduction, education, care taking, sexual freedom, and protection from violence. Despite significant success, much work remains. This session will consider the future of the women’s movement through a critical examination of our past.

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Lolita K. Buckner Inniss, SMU Dedman School of Law

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Nan D. Hunter, Georgetown University Law Center

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Leslie G. Jacobs, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

Moderator: Rona Kaufman, Duquesne University School of Law

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Diane J. Klein, University of La Verne College of Law

Speaker from a Call for Papers: Danaya C. Wright, University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law

 

 

Constitutional Law Section:. The Constitution and the Modern Right to Vote

In honor of the 100^th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and the 150^th anniversary of the Fifteenth, the Constitutional Law Section is putting on a joint program with the Section on Election Law (co-sponsored by the Section on Legal History). The program will run from 2 pm – 5 pm on Thursday, January 2^nd in Virginia Suite C.

The overall program is described as follows:

While the constitutional amendments related to voting rights have suggested that all citizens ought to be included in the franchise, the modern right to vote has nonetheless been heavily contested. The efforts to meaningfully include all citizens in the franchise in the century after the Nineteenth Amendment (and the 150 years after the Fifteenth Amendment) have been complicated, fraught, and have often diverged from the underlying idea of inclusion. Tensions still exist in modern voting rights law regarding the meaning of the right to vote, as illustrated by the litigation and activism around issues such as partisan and racial gerrymandering, voter identification, and proof of citizenship requirements. These examples reveal the complexities of the project of democratic inclusion, and this panel will explore how those complexities have evolved and are manifest in today’s right-to-vote doctrine.

Panel 1 (2:00 pm - 3:30 pm): This panel will explore the Nineteenth Amendment’s role in constitutional interpretation both inside and outside of the courts in the century after suffrage.

Speakers:   

Steven Calabresi, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Paula A. Monopoli, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (selected from a Call for Papers)
Reva B. Siegel, Yale Law School
Julie C. Suk, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Moderator:  Louis J. Virelli III, Stetson University College of Law

 

CFP International Conference on Gender and the Status of Women

CFP & Conf.: Int’l Interdisc. Conf. on Gender & Status of Women – Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Women Being issues a call for papers for the upcoming 2nd International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender and the Status of Women, on Mar. 8-11, 2020 in Edinburgh. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 15, 2019. 

This conference aims to be a platform for,

• Discussion relating to the current status of women, with a special focus on the following categories that constitute potential challenges to gender equality and women’s rights: the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the refugee crisis, rising levels of (and political legitimisation of) sexual violence and misogyny, cuts in child-care and services for disabled people, lack of access to paid parental leave, tax and welfare reforms, the gender pay gap, sexual harassment and the rise of zero-contract hours.
• International researchers and scientists from academia, industry and government to present their studies to a multi-disciplinary audience, exchange experiences, discuss proposals, and disseminate results on women’s and gender studies.
• Raising awareness and encouraging dialogue on the proposed topics, with the aim of creating lasting productive partnerships between the participants.

All submitted papers will be published in the conference proceedings, edited under the Creative Commons Licence (Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International/CC BY-ND 4.0), which will also contain a report and catalogue of activities. This book will be available on the WomenBeing webpage to download for free, and it will also be freely distributed to schools, institutions, research centres and individuals who request it.

WomenBeing builds upon this momentum by providing a ‘loudspeaker’ for academics, civil servants, researchers, social activists, journalists and private individuals to make their voices heard on the main challenges that women are currently facing.

Important dates :

Submission of abstracts: 15th December 2019

Acceptance notification: 20th December 2019

Submission of full papers: 10th February 2020

Early bird registration: 10th January 2020

Call for Panelists AALS "Teaching in a #MeToo World"

 

I am writing to solicit volunteers to participate in a moderated panel discussion at the AALS Annual Meeting. The Session, Teaching in a #Metoo World will take place on Friday, January 3, 2020 from 3:30-5:15pm.

 

This Session will focus on how we teach law in the age of #Metoo, Time’s Up, Justice Kavanaugh, Intersectionality, President Trump, Proper Pronoun Use, the Women’s March, and other recent developments. This session will consider how we, in our capacity as law teachers, are adapting our teaching as the world around us changes. Panelists are invited to discuss their teaching innovations: courses they have created or adapted or other ways in which they have engaged with students in this #Metoo World.

 

If you have created a new course, adapted an existing course, or otherwise shifted your engagement with students, in response to recent changes in our world, please consider applying to participate on this panel. Panelists will participate in an informal moderated discussion of how they have adapted their teaching. The audience will be encouraged to participate in the discussion by sharing comments and asking questions.

 

If you would like to be part of this panel, please email a description of your Teaching/Student Engagement Innovation (limited to 650 words) to Rona Kaufman at kitchenr@duq.edu by Monday, November 4^th (yes, that is just 5 days from now).

 

Panelists will be selected and confirmed by Wednesday, November 6^th.