{"id":51894,"date":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/supreme\/legal-commentary\/finding-equality-in-difference-an-excellent-new-book-considers-what-twenty-first-century-legal-feminism-should-look-like.html"},"modified":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","slug":"finding-equality-in-difference-an-excellent-new-book-considers-what-twenty-first-century-legal-feminism-should-look-like","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/legal-commentary\/finding-equality-in-difference-an-excellent-new-book-considers-what-twenty-first-century-legal-feminism-should-look-like.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding Equality in Difference An Excellent New Book Considers What Twenty-First Century Legal Feminism Should Look Like"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Finding Equality in Difference: An Excellent New Book Considers What Twenty-First Century Legal Feminism Should Look Like <\/h1><\/span>
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By KIMBERLY YURACKO <\/h2>
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Friday, Jul. 06, 2007
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Sherry F. Colb, When Sex Counts: Making Babies and Making Law<\/i> (Rowman & Littlefield 2007)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sherry Colb’s new book, When Sex Counts: Making Babies and Making Law,<\/u><\/u> deals with a foundational question for feminism: What does it means to treat people equally who are in important and relevant respects different? Or, as Colb — a Professor at Rutgers Law School who is also a FindLaw columnist — more narrowly frames the question, what does it mean to treat women and men as equals when “every woman is either pregnant or not pregnant,” while men are inherently not? <\/p>

Academic libraries are full of books espousing grand theories of equality. The vast majority, however, start from “on high” using a few core principles–perhaps about human nature or moral worth–to develop a coherent theory. Some then work deductively to apply their theories to broad social questions–perhaps concerning the proper distribution of medical care, or the state’s proper role in educating children. Most often, however, such books leave the reader entirely unclear about what a social commitment to equality actually requires in the strange, complicated and varied cases of everyday life. They raise more question than they answer.<\/p>

Colb’s new book, in contrast, provides both a theoretical grounding and specific answers – which is why it is a must-read for those interested in how legal guarantees of sex equality play out in actual cases. <\/p> \n