Women and the U.S. Constitution: History, Interpretation and Practice

"Women and the U.S. Constitution" is about much more than the nineteenth amendment. This provocative volume incorporates law, history, political theory, and philosophy to analyze the U.S. Constitution as a whole in relation to the rights and fate of women. Divided into three parts -- History, Interpretation, and Practice -- this book views the Constitution as a living document, struggling to free itself from the weight of a two-hundred-year-old past and capable of evolving to include women and their concerns.

Feminism lacks both a constitutional theory as well as a clearly defined theory of political legitimacy within the framework of democracy. The scholars included here take significant and crucial steps toward these theories. In addition to constitutional issues such as federalism, gender discrimination, basic rights, privacy, and abortion, "Women and the U.S. Constitution" explores other issues of central concern to contemporary women -- areas that, strictly speaking, are not yet considered a part of constitutional law. Women's traditional labor and its unique character, and women and the welfare state, are two examples of topics treated here from the perspective of their potentially transformative role in the future development of constitutional law.

Sibyl A. Schwarzenbach is associate professor of philosophy at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She is the author of On Civic Friendship (forthcoming) as well as of numerous articles in social, political, and feminist theory. Patricia Smith is professor of philosophy at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She is the author of Liberalism and Affirmative Obligation and the editor of numerous volumes including Feminist Jurisprudence.