Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution

Informed in 1944 that she was not of the sex entitled to be admitted to Harvard Law School, African American activist Pauli Murray confronted the injustice she called Jane Crow. In the 1960s and 1970s, the analogies between sex and race discrimination pioneered by Murray became potent weapons in the battle for womens rights, as feminists borrowed rhetoric and legal arguments from the civil rights movement. Serena Mayeris Reasoning from Race is the first book to explore the development and consequences of this key feminist strategy.

Mayeri uncovers the history of an often misunderstood connection at the heart of American antidiscrimination law. Her study details how a tumultuous political and legal climate transformed the links between race and sex equality, civil rights and feminism. Battles over employment discrimination, school segregation, reproductive freedom, affirmative action, and constitutional change reveal the promise and peril of reasoning from raceand offer a vivid picture of Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others who defined feminists agenda.

Looking beneath the surface of Supreme Court opinions to the deliberations of feminist advocates, their opponents, and the legal decision makers who heardor chose not to heartheir claims, Reasoning from Race showcases previously hidden struggles that continue to shape the scope and meaning of equality under the law.