Law, Gender, and Injustice: A Legal History of U.S. Women

by Joan Hoff

Overview

A groundbreaking analysis of how gendered oppression is written into the American legal system

Law, Gender, and Injustice: A Legal History of U.S. Woman is a landmark study of how women remain second-class citizens under the current legal system. In this widely acclaimed book, Joan Hoff questions whether the continued pursuit of equality based on a one-size-fits-all vision of traditional individual rights is really what will most improve conditions for women in America. Concluding that equality based on liberal male ideology is no longer an adequate framework for improving women's legal status, Hoff's highly original and incisive volume calls for a demystification of legal doctrine and a reinterpretation of legal texts (including the Constitution) to create a feminist jurisprudence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814735091
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1994
Series:	Feminist Crosscurrents , #1
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	580
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.43(d)

About the Author

Joan Hoff is Research Professor of History at Montana State University, former Executive Secretary of the Organization of American Historians, and coeditor of the international Journal of Women's History.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

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"A fascinating social history of women's rights, centered on a lengthy and discouraging series of constitutional confrontations .... a remarkably complete accounting of a historical trail that shape us all .... Law, Gender, and Injustice is an elegant example of the very best in feminist theorizing."

-Patricia J. Williams,Women's Review of Books

"Requisite for establishing women's legal history as a field. . . . Hoff's work is pivotal for both its conceptualization of the issues and its periodization of the field. . . . In contending with law as it was as well as with law as it is and ought to be, Hoff not only synthesizes recent scholarship, but she also charts new territory especially with regard to a chronological framework."

-Norma Basch,The Journal of Women's History

"Joan Hoff's legal history of U.S. women is a provocative, comprehensive, and realistic reinterpretation of women's legal status during the entire period of U.S. history. The book is sure to stimulate controversial reassessments of women's experience with the legal system."

-Mary Frances Berry,Geraldine R. Segal Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

"A brilliant, original, and thought-provoking book must reading for anyone interested in the full emancipation of women."

-Ms. Magazine

Editorial Reviews

"Joan Hoff's legal history of U.S. women is a provocative, comprehensive, and realistic reinterpretation of women's legal status during the entire period of U.S. history. The book is sure to stimulate controversial reassessments of women's experience with the legal system."

Mary Frances Berry

"A brilliant, original, and thought-provoking book must reading for anyone interested in the full emancipation of women."

Ms. Magazine

"A fascinating social history of women's rights, centered on a lengthy and discouraging series of constitutional confrontations .... a remarkably complete accounting of a historical trail that shape us all .... Law, Gender, and Injustice is an elegant example of the very best in feminist theorizing."

Women's Review of Books - Patricia J. Williams

"A fascinating social history of women's rights, centered on a lengthy and discouraging series of constitutional confrontations .... a remarkably complete accounting of a historical trail that shape us all .... Law, Gender, and Injustice is an elegant example of the very best in feminist theorizing."

-Patricia J. Williams, Women's Review of Books

"Requisite for establishing women's legal history as a field. . . . Hoff's work is pivotal for both its conceptualization of the issues and its periodization of the field. . . . In contending with law as it was as well as with law as it is and ought to be, Hoff not only synthesizes recent scholarship, but she also charts new territory especially with regard to a chronological framework.”

-Norma Basch, The Journal of Women's History

"Joan Hoff's legal history of U.S. women is a provocative, comprehensive, and realistic reinterpretation of women's legal status during the entire period of U.S. history. The book is sure to stimulate controversial reassessments of women's experience with the legal system."

-Mary Frances Berry,Geraldine R. Segal Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

"A brilliant, original, and thought-provoking book must reading for anyone interested in the full emancipation of women."

- Ms. Magazine

From the Publisher

The legal status of women has changed more rapidly in the last 20 years than in the previous 200, Hoff argues, but these changes have become less important over time. The American power structure has relinquished rights to women and minorities only after these rights have been diminished by a white-male-dominated legal system. She calls for a reinterpretation of legal texts to create a feminist jurisprudence. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Requisite for establishing women's legal history as a field. . . . Hoff's work is pivotal for both its conceptualization of the issues and its periodization of the field. . . . In contending with law as it was as well as with law as it is and ought to be, Hoff not only synthesizes recent scholarship, but she also charts new territory especially with regard to a chronological framework."

The Journal of Women's History - Norma Basch