WOMEN'S LIVES, MEN'S LAWS
Catharine A. MacKinnon
Harvard University Press (2005)

''...sexual assault in the United States today resembles lynching prior to its recognition as a civil rights violation.''

''Every day the pornography industry gets bigger and penetrates more deeply and more broadly into social life, conditioning mass sexual responses to make fortunes for men and to end lives and life chances for women and children....The age of first pornography consumption is younger and probably dropping, and the age of the average rapist is ever younger. The acceptable level of sexual force climbs ever higher; women's real status drops ever lower.''

(from Catharine A. MacKinnon, Women's Lives, Men's Laws, 2005)

BOOK DESCRIPTION
PUBLISHER
In the past twenty-five years, no one has been more instrumental than Catharine MacKinnon in making equal rights real for women. As Peter Jennings once put it, more than anyone else in legal studies, she "has made it easier for other women to seek justice." This collection, the first since MacKinnon's celebrated Feminism Unmodified appeared in 1987, brings together previously uncollected and unpublished work in the national arena from 1980 to the present, defining her clear, coherent, consistent approach to reframing the law of men on the basis of the lives of women.

By making visible the deep gender bias of existing law, MacKinnon has recast legal debate and action on issues of sex discrimination, sexual abuse, prostitution, pornography, and racism. The essays in this volume document and illuminate some of the momentous and ongoing changes to which this work contributes; the recognition of sexual harassment, rape, and battering as claims for sexual discrimination; the redefinition of rape in terms of women's actual experience of sexual violation; and the reframing of the pornography debate around harm rather than morality. The perspectives in these essays have played an essential part in changing American law and remain fundamental to the project of building a sex-equal future.

BOOK REVIEWS
Martha Nussbaum, author of Cultivating Humanity
"Women's Lives, Men's Laws contains the deepest and best feminist writing around, and there is nothing like it. MacKinnon is a figure of singular importance for the history of feminist thought and for its present. Before MacKinnon, there was no legally usable concept of sexual harassment. Now in any law library there are shelves of publications developing her ideas. Before her work, sexual advances in the workplace were not typically seen to involve an asymmetry of power (although they always did involve this, and women knew it). Now even the most conservative judge will use MacKinnon's framework of analysis in adjudicating cases. Before MacKinnon, again, issues of sexual equality were commonly dealt with by saying "equals to equals, unequals to unequals"—so if a difference could be shown between women and men, for example that only women get pregnant, not providing employees with pregnancy insurance did not constitute sex discrimination. After MacKinnon the concept of equality was understood in terms of a different antonym— subordination, second-class citizenship. Before MacKinnon, the law of obscenity focused on the alleged offensiveness of the sexy. Now even those who do not agree with her practical proposals agree that issues of violence, subordination, and abuse must be central in coming to grips with the problem of pornography. Finally, it is to a considerable extent due to MacKinnon's influence that sexual abuse of women is now regarded as a major human rights violation internationally. In short, as even critics of her views will readily agree, there is no single person who has done more to change the course of American law. She is among the century's most important thinkers, and I can think of none whose theoretical work has done more to improve human well being."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"As an activist and legal scholar, MacKinnon has been a prominent force in feminism since the mid-1970s, when she pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment. Her latest volume brings together 29 essays that show how the juridical legal system empowers men at the expense of women...MacKinnon offers thought-provoking commentary on a wide range of subjects, including the ERA, abortion, Brown v. Education, the history of sexual harassment law and the intersections of sexism with racial inequality and animal rights."

Jennifer Michael Hecht–NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"MacKinnon's first collection of essays since 1987, is absorbing and important... Perhaps more than anyone else, MacKinnon has changed the way we use the law in America today. The essays here on rape, abortion, prostitution and harassment law make clear how, and it's intellectually exciting stuff...Women's Lives, Men's Laws is a compelling vision of how our use of law shapes inequality and how we might rethink it."

Wendy Anderson–BOOKSLUT
"Catharine MacKinnon brings several decades worth of writing and speaking on the role of women in law together in this collection of essays. Women's Lives, Men's Laws is a fascinating look at MacKinnon's vision of what law could be if it supported, or God forbid, promoted the rights of women in the court system. In essays on myriad topics such as the equal rights amendment (ERA), color and gender, the evolution of sexual harassment laws, Brown vs. the Board of Education , and even animal rights, MacKinnon makes the same point over and over again—that the law fails women, and change is too slow and not enough...Women's Lives, Men's Laws shows how the law can give women power if they know how to use it to their advantage, and encourages women to improve the law by getting their experiences included in the making and interpreting of laws."   

Thomas Nagel–TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
"The book contains much that is impressive, both intellectually and rhetorically, and it is instructive both about the history of MacKinnon's battles and about the issues."

Mark Tushnet–AMERICAN LAWYER
"Histories of American law in the late twentieth century will discuss the contributions of only two or three people who made major contributions to the law as scholars, not judges. Richard Posner is one. Catharine MacKinnon is another. Women's Lives, Men's Laws, a collection of her essays, many published before but some in hard-to-locate journals, shows why...Historians will grapple with MacKinnon's role in constructing contemporary law. Today's readers will benefit enormously from grappling with her claims about what that law is and should be—even, or perhaps particularly, the claims that for the moment seem off-the-wall."

Frances Elisabeth Olsen, author of Feminist Legal Theory
"The writings in MacKinnon's Women's Lives, Men's Laws continue to be excellent— fresh, concise and incisive. She has new things to say that will continue to enrapture and enlighten a large readership (and perhaps enrage others, many of whom perhaps never actually read her work)."

LIBRARY JOURNAL–-M.C. Duhig, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
"These 29 provocative essays investigate the role of law in women's everyday lives. Taking on such fundamental issues as rape, prostitution, and pornography, MacKinnon ...maintains that even when the law does not actually ignore women, its effects are usually negative, and that any law that does not take into account the basic sex inequality of male-female relationships cannot help women. The author is at her most passionate in essays describing the destructive effects of pornography on all women forced to engage in it, whether as participants, viewers, or partners of viewers; running through these essays is the story of her efforts to make pornography a civil offense in Minneapolis. Each essay stands alone but is also part of a finely crafted whole. One could wish, however, that MacKinnon's style was somewhat less academic; her arguments are important and should be accessible to both scholars and general readers. That said, this is a well-supported, timely, and necessary addition to both feminist and legal scholarship..."