A Structural Approach as Antidiscrimination Mandate: Locating Employer Wrong

A structural approach to employment discrimination law seeks to impose an obligation on employers not to facilitate discriminatory decisionmaking in the workplace. Scholars across disciplines agree that a structural approach is a crucial element of an effective antidiscrimination law. Existing law fails to account for the ways in which bias manifests subtly in day-to-day workplace decisionmaking, or for the influence of organizational context on that decisionmaking. But the future of a structural approach depends, in part, on its normative foundation. Without sufficient normative underpinning, a structural approach is unlikely to gain traction in the public or in the courts. In this Article, Professor Tristin Green makes the normative case for a structural approach. She argues that a structural approach sits within the core of employment discrimination law, imposing costs on employers for their own wrongs against individuals in the workplace. At the same time, she challenges the emerging view that all (or almost all) antidiscrimination law is inherently and exclusively distributive. That view, she argues, is both mistaken and dangerous, for it casts aside the longstanding fault-based component of the nondiscrimination obligation

Estradiol-independent restoration of T-cell function in post-reproductive females

Aging leads to a general decline in protective immunity. The most common age-associated effects are in seen T-cell mediated immune function. Adult mice whose immune systems show only moderate changes in T-cell subsets tend to live longer than age-matched siblings that display extensive T-cell subset aging. Importantly, at the time of reproductive decline, the increase in disease risks in women significantly outpace those of men. In female mice, there is a significant decline in central and peripheral naïve T-cell subsets at the time of reproductive failure. Available evidence indicates that this naïve T-cell decline is sensitive to ovarian function and can be reversed in post-reproductive females by transplantation of young ovaries. The restoration of naïve T-cell subsets due to ovarian transplantation was impressive compared with post-reproductive control mice, but represented only a partial recovery of what was lost from 6 months of age. Apparently, the influence of ovarian function on immune function may be an indirect effect, likely moderated by other physiological functions. Estradiol is significantly reduced in post-reproductive females, but was not increased in post-reproductive females that received new ovaries, suggesting an estradiol-independent, but ovarian-dependent influence on immune function. Further evidence for an estradiol-independent influence includes the restoration of immune function through the transplantation of young ovaries depleted of follicles and through the injection of isolated ovarian somatic cells into the senescent ovaries of old mice. While the restoration of naïve T-cell populations represents only a small part of the immune system, the ability to reverse this important functional parameter independent of estradiol may hold promise for the improvement of post-reproductive female immune health. Further studies of the non-reproductive influence of the ovary will be needed to elucidate the mechanisms of the relationship between the ovary and health

Race and Sex in Organizing Work: Diversity, Discrimination, and Integration

This Article provides the first extended analysis of the conscious consideration of race and sex in organizing work. It draws on research and literature in the fields of sociology, social psychology, and organizational theory to expose the risks and possibilities of permitting race- and sex-based decisions organizing work for workplace equality. Based on this empirical foundation and on established Supreme Court case law setting limits and conditions on the use of race and sex in employment decisions under Title VII, the Article presents an argument that is equally normative and doctrinal