Description
Book SynopsisEssentially a Mother argues that the law of pregnancy and motherhood has been overrun by sexist ideology. Courts have held that a pregnant woman's nine months of gestation hardly count in her claim to parent the child she bears and that a man's brief moment of ejaculation matters more than a woman's labor. Armed with such dubious arguments, courts have stripped women of the right to abortion, treated surrogate mothers as mere vessels, and handed biological fatherseven those who became fathers through rapeautomatic rights over women and their children. In this incisive and groundbreaking book, Jennifer Hendricks argues that feminists must overthrow the skewed value system that subordinates women, devalues caregiving, and denies too many the right to parent.
Trade Review"Comprehensive yet concise. . . .
Essentially a Mother arrives just when we need a reminder that it is time to update the values at the basis of American law and that relational feminism shows us how to do it." * Jotwell *
"Jennifer Hendricks has done us all a service by problematizing a legal framework that does not respect sexual difference between men and women. In doing so, she gives us the chance to restore both humanity and justice to our law." * Deseret News *
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction
PART ONE
SEX DIFFERENCE AND ACCOMMODATION
1 • Mothers at Work
2 • Fathers at Home
3 • What the Law Protects . . .
4 • . . . and Why
PART TWO
THE COLLAPSE OF THE CARETAKING
5 • Expanding Fathers’ Rights against Mothers
6 • Sidelining Inconvenient Fathers
7 • Leveling Down to Genes
PART THREE
A FEMINIST APPROACH
8 • How to Reason from the Body
9 • The Body and Beyond
Conclusion
Timeline of Cases
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
