A Law of Her Own : : The Reasonable Woman as a Measure of Man / / Donna Matthews, Caroline Forell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Forell, Caroline,; Matthews, Donna,
• MitwirkendeR: Welke, Barbara Y.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2001]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Despite the apparent progress in women's legal status, the law retains a profoundly male bias, and as such contributes to the pervasive violence and injustice against women. In A Law of Her Own, the authors propose to radically change law's fundamental paradigm by introducing a "reasonable woman standard" for measuring men's behavior. Advocating that courts apply this standard to the conduct of men-and women-in legal settings where women are overwhelmingly the injured parties, the authors seek to eliminate the victimization and objectification of women by dismantling part of the legal structure that supports their subordination. A woman-based legal standard-focusing on respect for bodily integrity, agency, and autonomy-would help rectify the imbalance in how society and its legal system view sexual and gender-based harassment, rape, stalking, battery, domestic imprisonment, violence, and death. Examining the bias of the existing "reasonable person" standard through analysis of various court cases and judicial decisions, A Law of Her Own aims to balance the law to incorporate women's values surrounding sex and violence.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I The Idea and the Reality -- 1 Locked In and Locked Out -- 2 The Meaning of Equality -- II Sexual Harassment in the Workplace -- 3 Men, Women, and Sex at Work -- 4 How and Why Different Perspectives Matter in Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment Cases -- 5 Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation, and the Reasonable Woman -- 6 The Reasonable Woman after Harris v. Forklift Systems -- III Stalking -- 7 Stalking and the Gendered Meaning of Reasonable Fear -- 8 The Continuum of Stalking, Sexual Harassment, and Domestic Homicide -- IV Domestic Homicide -- 9 Slips in a Dangerous Game -- 10 “Provoked” Intimate Homicide -- 11 When Battered Women Kill -- V Rape -- 12 Rape and the Use and Misuse of the Reasonable Woman -- Postscript -- References -- Index -- About the Authors