Frelich Appleton, Susan --- "How feminism remade American family law (and how it did not)" [2019] ELECD 120; in West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia (eds), "Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 426

Book Title: Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence

Editor(s): West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786439680

Section: Chapter 22

Section Title: How feminism remade American family law (and how it did not)

Author(s): Frelich Appleton, Susan

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

This chapter uses the lenses of history and feminism to examine American family law past, present and future. The analysis highlights how family law’s two central organizing constructs, marriage and gender, have long provided a powerful draw for feminist theorists, critics and reformers. Their engagement helped to bring about groundbreaking shifts, represented by seven distinct twentieth-century changes in family law that collectively transformed the field from its Blackstonian past to its second-wave liberal-feminist present and paved the way to marriage equality for gays and lesbians – a development scarcely imaginable less than 50 years ago. After considering each of these changes and explaining their specific relevance to marriage equality, the chapter takes a critical turn. It invokes newer feminist approaches to expose the limitations of the last century’s reforms and looks ahead toward the work to be done by feminists in forging a family law of the future.