Legal Research Guide Series #19

Women and the Law

Library Research Guide 

Compiled by
Karen E. Reilly
Reference Librarian
California Western School
of Law

Updated September, 2006

SCOPE:  This research guide is not all-inclusive.  It does, however, present resources available at the California Western library and online regarding legal issues associated with women and the law.  It is designed to provide the researcher with guidance as to the location of materials dealing with this subject.  Additional research can be conducted by using the KIM catalog system, legal periodical indexes, and other finding aids.  Access to Lexis, Westlaw, and the Internet is limited to students and faculty at California Western.  We welcome suggestions for improvements to this and other research guides.  Please consult the Reference Librarian with suggestions and further research questions.  This research guide was originally compiled in May, 2002.

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Internet Resources

Texts and Looseleafs

Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw

Periodicals

 

Getting Started

This research guide presents just a sample of the CWSL Library’s collection of materials on women and the law.  For further research, you may want to search the KIM system (the library’s catalog) using the following key word phrases:

Texts and Looseleafs

Applications of Feminist Legal Theory to Women’s Lives: Sex, Violence, Work and Reproduction. Edited by D. Kelly Weisberg. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: K 349.A67

 

Arbitrating Sexual Harassment Cases. Edited by Vern E. Hauc. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1995.

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 3467.A52 A73

 

Are women human? : and other international dialogues.  By Catharine A. MacKinnon.  Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

Location:  3rd Floor

Call No.:  HQ1236 .M337 2006 

 

Avoiding and Litigating Sexual Harassment Claims. New York, N.Y.: Practising Law Institute.

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 3467.Z9 A87

 

Domestic Violence Law. 2d ed. Edited by Nancy K. D. Leman. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2001.

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 9320.D65 2001

 

Domestic Violence: The Criminal Justice Response. 2d ed. By Eve S. Buzawa, Carl G. Buzawa. Thosand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1996.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: HV 6626.B89 1996

 

Feminist legal theory : an anti-essentialist reader.  By Nancy E. Dowd and Michelle S. Jacobs, eds New York : New York University Press, c2003.

Location:  3rd Floor

Call No.:  K349 .F458 2003

 

Handling the Domestic Violence Case. New York: Practising Law Institute.

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 9322.Z9 H36

 

Human rights and gender violence : translating international law into local justice.  By Sally Engle Merry.  Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2006.

Location:  3rd Floor

Call No.:  HQ1237 .M47 2006

 

Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives. Edited by Rebecca J. Cook.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: K 644.H86

 

It’s a Crime: Women and Justice. 2d ed. Edited by Roslyn Muraskin. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: HV 6046.I86 2000

 

Rights of Women: A Guide to the Most Important United Nations Treaties on Women’s Human Rights. 2d ed. New York: International Women’s Tribune Centre, 1998.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: K 644.R54 1998

 

The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. By Alexander Keyssar. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: JK 1846.K46 2000

 

Sex-Based Employment Discrimination. By Susan M. Omilian, Jean P. Kamp. Deerfield, IL: Clark Boardman Callaghan, 1990.

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 3467.O48

 

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Legal Research Guide. By Kimberly Pruett. Buffalo, N.Y.: William S. Hein, 2001.

Location: Reference Collection

Call No.: KF 241.L33 P78 2001

 

Sourcebook on Violence Against Women. Edited by Claire M. Renzetti, Jeffrey l. Edleson, Raquel Kennedy Bergen. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2001.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: HV 6250.4.W65 S68 2001

 

Women and International Human Rights Law. Edited by Kelly D. Askin, Dorean M. Koenig. Ardsley, N.Y.: Transnational, 1999.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: K 644.W64

 

Women, Armed Conflict, and International Law. By Judith G. Gardam and Michelle J. Jarvis. Boston: Kluwer Law International, 2001.

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: KZ 6471.G37 2001

 

Women going backwards : law and change in a family unfriendly society.  By Sandra Berns.  Aldershot, Hampshire, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2002.

Location:  3rd Floor

Call No.:  K644 .B47 2002

Periodicals

The following journals are available in the library, and all except Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal are available and searchable in full-text format on Westlaw and LEXIS/NEXIS.  LegalTrac, Hein Online or the Current Index to Legal Periodicals (available on library computers) may be used to search for articles in these and other law journals.  Many other journals and periodicals on gender and the law are also available in the library.

 

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law. Washington, D.C.: Washington College of Law, American University, 1999- .

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 477.A15 A43

 

Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, continued as Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & JusticeBerkeley: University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law, 1985- Location: 3rd Floor Periodicals

 

Cardozo Women’s Law Journal , continued as Cardozo Journal of Law and GenderNew York: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, 1993-

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 477.A15 C37

 

Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. New York: Columbia University School of Law, 1991- .

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: K3.042

 

Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy.  Durham, N.C. : Duke University School of Law, 1994-.

Location:  4th Floor

Call No.:  KF9325.A15 D84 

 

Hastings Women’s Law Journal. San Francisco, CA: Hastings College of Law, 1989- .

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 477.A15 H37

 

Law & Sexuality.  New Orleans, La. : Students of Tulane University School of Law, c1991- .

Location:  4th Floor

Call No.:  KF4754.5.A15 L38 

 

Southern California Review of Law and Women’s Studies. Los Angeles: Students of the Gould School of Law, University of Southern California, 1992- .

Location: 4th Floor

Call No.: KF 477.A15 S68

 

Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995- .

Location: 3rd Floor

Call No.: HV 6250.4 .W65 V53

 

Women’s Rights Law Reporter.  Newark, N.J., : Women's Rights Law Reporter, Inc.

Location:  3rd Floor Periodicals

 

Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. New Haven, CT: [The Journal], 1989- .

Location: 3rd Floor Periodicals

Internet Resources

[Note: Internet site addresses change frequently.  Accordingly, some of these sites may no longer exist at the addresses provided.  To locate a site, search for the page title using an Internet search engine such as Google (http://www.google.com/).]

 

Center for Reproductive Law and Policy

http://www.crlp.org/

This page includes surveys of laws and United Nations treaties affecting women’s reproductive rights in the United States and overseas.

 

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

http://www.eeoc.gov/

This site provides links to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or pregnancy, instructions for how to file a charge, and guidance for small businesses in complying with the law.

 

Hieros Gamos

http://www.hg.org/women.html

This web page includes links to the texts of conventions and treaties, and well as reports from United Nations commissions and international organizations regarding women’s rights, and articles addressing the status of women in various countries.

 

Lambda Legal Defense Fund

http://lambdalegal.org/

This page features links to recent briefs and decisions regarding gay and lesbian rights, a state-by-state guide to state and local laws affecting those rights, and cases from each state.

 

Office of National Drug Control Policy

http://whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/women

This site includes links to information about women and drug use, including drug arrests, sentencing and correctional statistics.

 

United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women

http://www.usdoj.gov/ovw/

This web page includes links to OVW special initiatives such as the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the Safety for Indian Women Demonstration Initiative, OVW’s Measuring Effectiveness Initiative, domestic violence and sexual assault hotlines, state coalitions, and other Federal agencies with violence against women programs.

 

United States Department of Labor

http://www.dol.gov/

This page features links to laws and regulations, statistics, historical information and news releases dealing with many topics, including women in the workplace.

 

Women’s Human Rights Resources

http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/

This site provides links to books and articles regarding international women’s human rights issues, and well as United Nations documents and conventions and related web sites.

Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw

These resources are available in the library only to CWSL students and faculty. Both services contain a large variety of primary (e.g., cases, statutes, regulations, etc.) and secondary (e.g., journal articles, practice guides, etc.) materials.

Westlaw offers the following more specialized publications or databases related to women and the law, among others:

Andrews Employment Litigation Reporter

Andrews Sexual Harassment Litigation Reporter

Employment Discrimination Law Update

Journal of Family Violence

Journal of Gender, Race & Justice

Journal of International Women’s Studies

Sex-Based Employment Discrimination

Sexual Harassment: Federal Law

Violence Against Women

Women’s Studies International Forum

Finally, Westlaw offers a database of federal cases involving employment law entitled Federal Labor & Employment Cases (FLB-CS).

Lexis offers the following specialized databases:

Mealey’s Sexual Discrimination/Harassment
Larson on Employment Discrimination
Employment Law : Mealey’s Litigation Report

If you have questions about these services or how to search for particular materials, please see a Reference Librarian.