Sexual Harassment of Working Women - A Case of Sex Discrimination (Paperback)

In the first major book on the subject, attorney MacKinnon tackles the problem of on-the-job sexual harassment of working women, a practice so common that it seems "natural," strictly "personal," or "harmless" fun to perpetrators and courts alike. Maintaining that sexual harassment constitutes discrimination based on sex, and that courts should find it so, MacKinnon argues her case within both of the "conceptual frameworks" that guide discrimination law: the "differences theory" which holds that women shall be treated like men except where "real" sexual differences exist, and the "inequality theory" which holds all practices discriminatory that systematically deprive a sex because of its sex, MacKinnon patiently builds her own argument, unravels the snarls of existing legal theory and the kinks (and sheer idiocies) of landmark cases, and offers illuminating parallels to laws regarding racial discrimination, rape, and wife abuse. (Appendices for attorneys include further legal argument on application of sex discrimination doctrine and a brief applicable to employment or education.) Trying to appeal to both general readers and legal experts, MacKinnon fully explains cases and points of law - but, alas, all in a wordy, passive-voiced legalese that staggers even the most tenacious reader. Still the book is an important contribution to legal and political theory and a giant step forward in discrimination law. (Kirkus Reviews)

Sexual harassment of working women has been widely practiced and systematically ignored. Men's control over women's jobs has often made coerced sexual relations the price of women's material survival. Considered trivial or personal, or natural and inevitable, sexual harassment has become a social institution. MacKinnon offers here the first major attempt to understand sexual harassment as a pervasive social problem and to present a legal argument that it is discrimination based on sex. Beginning with an analysis of victims' experiences, she then examines sex discrimination doctrine as a whole, both for its potential in prohibiting sexual harassment and for its limitations. Two distinct approaches to sex discrimination are seen to animate the law: one based on an analysis of the differences between the sexes, the other upon women's social inequality. Arguing that sexual harassment at work is sex discrimination under both approaches, she criticizes the effectiveness of the law in reaching the real determinants of women's social status. She concludes that a recognition of sexual harassment as illegal would support women's economic equality and sexual self-determination at a point where the two are linked.

General

Imprint:	Yale University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Yale Fastback Series
Release date:	September 1979
First published:	September 1979
Authors:	Catharine A. MacKinnon
Dimensions:	203 x 130 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	326
ISBN-13:	978-0-300-02299-5
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Work & labour Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Equal opportunities Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Gender studies > Women's studies > General Promotions
LSN:	0-300-02299-9
Barcode:	9780300022995

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