Women, Politics, and the Nineties: The Abortion Debate

The fight for political empowerment of women may finally break wide open over the issues of reproductive freedom. This article posits that while public attention has focused on courtroom attempts to limit Roe v. Wade, the issues will ultimately be decided in the political arena. Here, Estrich says, the framer of the question may be the ultimate victor. For those on the pro-choice side of the debate, the next election cycle may be their first real opportunity to vote as a bloc and wield real political power

A new age of believing women? Judging rape narratives online

Book synopsis: This book critically examines the last few decades of discussion around sex and violence in the media, on social media, in the courtroom and through legislation. The discursive struggles over what constitutes "sexual violence", "victims" and "offenders" is normally determined through narratives: a selective ordering of events and participants. Centrally, the book investigates the social processes involved in the telling of stories of rape and its political implications. From a multidisciplinary feminist perspective, this volume explores what narratives about sexual violence are deemed legitimate at this historical juncture. This volume brings together feminist scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines including law, legal studies, history, gender studies, ethnology, media, criminology and social work from across the globe. Through situated empirical work, these scholars seek to understand currents movements between the criminal justice system and the cultural imagination

Bridging the Gender Gap

Women should be considered a voting bloc. In the 2000 Presidential election, if women were the only people voting, Al Gore would have won the election. Only 48% of white women, however, voted for Al Gore. Al Gore’s strongest base of female support came from single, working women. In contrast, women who did not have jobs outside of the home supported Bush. Despite making up 52% of the total vote in 2000, the number of women running for state legislature decreased for the first time in the decade. Nevertheless, the number of women governors and senators increased, new feminists entered the House, and women voters defeated incumbents. The challenge, therefore, is to find the bridges that will unite women across the lines of race, employment status, and marital status. Democratic candidates tend to look at political patterns and decide that their problem is with male voters, particularly white men, rather than women. No one has ever suggested that women are a voting bloc with the same sort of cohesiveness found among Jewish voters or black voters. Nonetheless, there may be greater potential with women who are not voting democratic than with men who are not. With women’s life spans getting longer and the cost of living getting higher, the reality is that most women will at some point be single working women who will vote democratic. Therefore, democratic political candidates should find the bridge that unites women across the lines of marital and job status in order to receive more votes

Defending Women

A Review of Justifiable Homicide: Battered Women, Self-Defense and The Law by Cynthia Gillespi

Bridging the Gender Gap (Reflection)

The reality of an individual woman's life rarely fits so easily, much less permanently, into the political categories. Working women take time off; non-working women rarely stay that way permanently. Sooner or later, almost all of us become working women. Half of all married women will end up, at least for a time, as unmarried women. Most women, even if they do not have their own children, have children who play a major role in their lives. And children grow up, whether they belong to you or someone else. Full-time mothering is not a permanent job, and with our life spans getting longer and the cost of living getting higher, the reality is that most of us will at some point find ourselves as single working women. If we voted that way, Al Gore would be President