Thursday, March 8, 2018

HeinOnline's Women and the Law Collection

In honor of International Women's Day, I went browsing in HeinOnline's Women and the Law Collection.  Subtitled Peggy, honoring the mother of one of the developers, this collection has a rich variety of documents, from nineteenth-century suffrage tracts to recent law review articles.

Illustration from Abby Smith and Her Cows

Under "Legal Rights & Suffrage," I came across Abby Smith and Her Cows, with a Report of the Law Case Decided Contrary to Law, a tract published by Julia Smith in 1877. Abby and Julia were sisters who inherited a farm in Glastonbury, Connecticut, from their father. After paying taxes for some time, they began to ask why they had no say in the government that assessed the taxes and sent the tax collector. The sisters launched a tax protest which led to extensive attention in the papers and three court proceedings. I just skimmed it so can't relate the details, but it offers an interesting peek into life and law.

If you taste runs to the more recent developments, consider

Jessica Watters, Comment, Pink Hats and Black Fists: The Role of Women in the Black Lives Matter Movement, 24 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 199 (2017)

or

Christian Jordan, Note, The Casting Couch Is More Than Tortious: The Case for Expanded Interpretations of Rape Statutes, 13 S. Cal. Rev. L. & Women's Studies 199 (2004)

. . . or search for any topic you want. It's an amazing collection!



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