Lisa Kelly

 

 

An Overview of the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism

 

            The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism is, obviously, a journal devoted to law and feminism.  I have read the complete 1998 version of this journal, which consists of two volumes: one published in March, the other in September.  In this essay, I will briefly summarize the qualities of the journal with particular attention to the authors, the content, focus, audience, and contribution of the journal.

            The focus of the journal is of law as it relates to and concerns women.  The topics range from young women's rights to obtain an abortion ("Journey Through the Courts:  Minors, Abortion, and the Quest for Reproductive Fairness") to prostitution ("Nevada Sex Trade:  A Gamble for the Workers") to feelings of alienation and otherness ("Just Trying to be Human in This Place"  The Legal Education of Twenty Women").  All of the articles in both volumes were written by women of the legal profession: either students, professors, or law professionals.   The inner cover of the journal does say that it "welcomes the submission of unsolicited articles, comments, letters, poetry, and artwork", but the somewhat complex writing of the journal (though there are exceptions) indicates that the journal is assuming an audience of educated people. 

            The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism is definitely written for a feminist audience.  The purpose of the journal is to examine all aspects of law as it relates to all types of women (lesbians, mothers, prostitutes, single, and minority women, for example, were represented in this volume) and to criticize it from a feminist prospective.  For example, in Joyce E. McConnell's article entitled "Securing the Care of Children in Diverse Families:  Building on Trends in Guardianship Reform", she addresses the problems that legal restrictions place on homosexual men and women face when they attempt to adopt and raise children together.  McConnell uses an example of a lesbian couple that chooses to have a child through artificial insemination.  Using legal cases, she explains that the non-biological "parent" would be able to seek only limited medical care (rarely mental health) and make no decisions regarding the welfare of the child.  McConnell traces the problems that restricting adopting places on sharing parenting and challenges the idea that the nuclear family is the only effective way of raising a child. She calls for a reform of the laws that keep children out of the homes of loving and able parents.  This is but one of many examples of feminist thinking that is represented by this journal.

The journal effectively serves as a medium for the critique of the many laws that shape, influence, and mold the lives of women.  Several authors used the case-study method for discussing problematic laws and their implications.  In J. Shoshanna Ehrlich's article "Journey through the Courts:  Minors, Abortion, and the Quest for Reproductive Fairness", the author traces the problems that state laws create for (federally) legalized abortion.  Using statistics and a large number of state court rulings, Ehrlich paints a vivid picture of the possible consequences of unchecked, conservative state's laws, while at the same time revealing her pro-choice, feminist ways of thinking.

            The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, however, does not confine itself to simple laws and the practice of law.  A particularly moving piece by recent Yale law school graduate Paula Gaber, entitled "Just Trying to be Human in this Place:  The Legal Education of Twenty Women" discusses the feelings of alienation that women feel at an elite law school such as Yale.  In her article, Gaber uses the information she gathered from interviewing twenty women about their law school experiences to illustrate the common feeling of otherness that women share, in an attempt to improve communication and increase their sense of community.  The jouranal thus serves to further the production of knowledge within feminist studies by showing the ways in which the law molds the lives of women.  The journal  attempts to help women reclaim some of all aspects of the law for themselves, to correct possibly damaging flaws and loopholes and to overall improve the lives of women.