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Sex Worker, Not Prostitute
I first heard about using the term “sex worker” instead of “prostitute” while listening to an episode of “My Favorite Murder”,112 – Our Bodies, Our Twelves, My Favorite Murder (Apr. 14, 2016) (downloaded using iTunes). a true-crime comedy podcast, demonstrating…
Restricting Mandatory Arbitration Agreements in Sexual Harassment Cases
In the United States, over sixty million employees are subject to mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment.1Alexander J.S. Colvin, The Growing Use of Mandatory Arbitration: Access to the Courts is Now Barred For More Than 60 Million American…Prescription Restriction: Why Birth Control Must Be Over-the-Counter in the United States
This Note argues that it is harmful and unnecessary to require women to obtain prescriptions for access to hormonal birth control. Requiring a prescription is necessarily a barrier to access which hurts women and hamstrings the ability to dictate their own reproductive plans. It is also an irrational regulation in light of the relative safety of hormonal birth control pills, particularly progestin-only formulations, compared to other drugs readily available on the shelves. Leading medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, advocate for over-the-counter access to hormonal birth control. While acknowledging that not every woman will have positive outcomes taking hormonal birth control pills, this Note argues that women are capable of taking hormonal birth control as directed and are able to self-identify if they themselves are at risk for complications. Following a long line of cases that establish reproduction as a fundamental right in the United States, it follows that requiring a prescription for access can and should be analyzed under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clauses, particularly under the Undue Burden standard. Certain prerequisites, such as pelvic exams, once thought to be necessary to safely prescribe hormonal birth control, are now widely considered unnecessary in determining whether a particular woman can safely take birth control pills. This Note goes further and argues that such prerequisites are an unconstitutional method of holding vital medication hostage from women who desire to control their reproductive health.Matter of A-B- and the Rejection of Refugees from Domestic Violence
In June 2018, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions released the controversial asylum decision Matter of A-B-.1A-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 316 (A.G. 2018); see also Katie Benner & Caitlin Dickerson, Sessions Says Domestic and Gang Violence Are Not Grounds for Asylum,…No Status, No Hope: Women Refugees in Israel
Women refugees are one of the most marginalized populations in the world. As with all asylum seekers, women refugees face persecution both in their home country and their host country because of their status and identity. The situation is even worse in Israel, which continues to deny refugee status…
Title IX Lawsuits as a Strategy for Integrating Fraternities
In February, three undergraduate women attending Yale filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court requesting a court order that Yale-affiliated fraternities allow women to join. The plaintiffs allege that the exclusively male fraternities create a hostile environment on campus for women and that, by excluding women, only men…
Shame Punishments for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence
In a surprising trend, judges in the late 1990s increasingly issued “shame sanctions,” punishments which cause a person to feel lessor in relation to other members of society.1See Toni M. Massaro, Shame, Culture, and American Criminal Law, 89 Mich. L.
We Aren’t Going Anywhere: Broadening Perspectives from 1992 to 2019
It’s probably no coincidence that the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law was founded in 1992—a year coined as “The Year of the Woman.” It was in 1992 that the nation watched uncomfortably as Professor Anita Hill confronted patriarchy in its ugliest form—forced to testify to a wall of…“Stealthing” is Sexual Assault, Let’s Start Saying it in Court
“Stealthing,” the act of non-consensually removing one’s condom during sex, came to my attention in 2017 when the issue went viral in the online-feminist space. The fact that this act has a name immediately signaled to me its grotesque ubiquity. More than just an assaultive practice, stealthing is a…Contracting Around Gender Constructs: Transgender Men at Women’s Colleges
As the transgender community gains increasing visibility in society, women’s colleges have begun to address new questions about who is eligible to attend. One such question is whether students who come out as transgender men after matriculation are eligible to remain enrolled and graduate from these institutions. The main claims relevant to this discussion are (1) colleges’ right to retain their identity as all-women’s institutions; (2) the parallel rights of cisgender female students who explicitly choose to attend an all-women’s institution, and (3) transgender students’ competing right to avoid arbitrary or capricious dismissal based on gender identity. This Note posits that contract law provides a useful framework for colleges to evaluate this question since both express and implied contracts form the basis of the student- college relationship. Ultimately, this Note argues that, although solutions that satisfy all parties are impossible, harms can be minimized if transgender students are permitted to graduate and given appropriate support throughout the transition process, and other policies are adapted to address the concerns of cisgender female students.