Princeton University
Woodrow Wilson School
Graduate Program
Spring Term 1994
Professors Jennifer Hochschild
and Stanley Katz

WS 516: RACE, GENDER AND LAW IN THE UNITED STATES

PURPOSE:

This course is intended to provide an introduction to the legal analysis of selected problems of race and gender in contemporary American society. The course is structured analytically around the development of both constitutional (equal protection of the laws) and statutory bases for the achievement of, minimally, nondiscriminatory, and, ideally, equal treatment across racial and gender lines. Subjects to be studied include: education, voting, housing, private associations, harassment. We will pay special attention to the issues of affirmative action and of the political implications of differential identities.

The course will meet in one seminar session each week. Students have the option of taking a three hour final examination or writing a 15-20 page research paper (on a topic agreed upon with the instructors) due the day of the final exam. The course does not presuppose previous knowledge of legal analysis.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Derrick Bell, ed., Race, Racism and American Law (3rd ed., Little Brown, Inc., 1992)

J.Ralph Lindgren and Nadine Taub, eds., The Law of Sex Discrimination

(2nd ed., West Publishing Co., 1993)

Martha Minow, Making All the Difference (Cornell U. Press, 1990)

Michel Rosenfeld, Affirmative Action and Justice (Yale U. Press, 1991)

SYLLABUS:

February 2: The constitutional law of equal protection: I

February 9: The constitutional law of equal protection: II

Xeroxed materials to be distributed

February 16: Race: public education

Bell, pp. 530-646

February 23 Gender: history and theory

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 1-50

Xeroxed material to be distributed

March 2: Gender: constitutional and statutory protections

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 51-105, 144-200

March 9: Race: statutory protection

Race and Gender: private colleges

Bell, pp. 661-684, 806-901

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 279-295

March 16: No class spring break

March 23: Race: voting rights

Bell, pp. 176-287

March 30: Race and Gender: Fair housing and private clubs

Bell, pp. 685-805

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 322-325

Xeroxed material to be distributed

April 6: Gender: sexual harassment and pornography

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 201-222, 314-321, 508-520

April 13: Affirmative Action: constitutional aspects

Rosenfeld, pp. 135-215

Bell, pp. 646-660

Lundgren and Taub, pp. 248-263

April 20: Affirmative action: political theory

Rosenfeld, pp. 52-132, 239-336

April 27: Different identities: law and political theory

Minow, pp. 11-20, 227-239, 267-311, 373-390