Synopsis
When it was published twenty-five years ago, Catharine MacKinnon's pathbreaking work Sexual Harassment of Working Women had a major impact on the development of sexual harassment law. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted her theory of sexual harassment in 1986. Here MacKinnon collaborates with eminent authorities to appraise what has been accomplished in the field and what still needs to be done. An introductory essay by Reva Siegel considers how sexual harassment came to be regulated as sex discrimination. Contributors discuss how law can best address sexual harassment; the importance and definition of consent and unwelcomeness; issues of same-sex harassment; questions of institutional responsibility for sexual harassment in both employment and education settings; considerations of freedom of speech; effects of sexual harassment doctrine on gender and racial justice; and transnational approaches to the problem. An afterword by MacKinnon assesses the changes wrought by sexual harassment law in the past quarter century.
Author Biography: Catharine A. MacKinnon is Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Reva B. Siegel is Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale University.
Library Journal
MacKinnon (law, Univ. of Michigan; Sexual Harassment of Working Women) and Siegel (law, Yale Univ.) have assembled a compilation of 37 essays from noted authors in the field of sexual harassment law and litigation that together form an expansive compendium of discourse on the topic. A number of common themes emerge. First and foremost is the current emphasis on unwanted advances as the prerequisite to recovery. Second is the location or setting where sexual harassment can by definition occur, usually in the workplace or classroom, where the victim is in a professionally subservient relationship with the dominant force and is dependent upon him, her, or, sometimes, them for dispensation of some sort. An equally important ingredient is the androcentric emphasis on behavioral cues and the denial of others to the extent that the collective judgments of observers are assumed to be more greatly disinterested than self-report (i.e., the woman's account). As much an overview of the psychological construction of women's resistance to sexual harassment as its legal counterpart, this book forms an excellent compilation of the latest thought and research. Legally, it is a useful text for study of the doctrine of implied consent. Highly recommended for law libraries, academic libraries, and public libraries with significant collections in the social sciences.-Philip Y. Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Law Lib., New York Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.