Feminists & Contract Doctrine

Abstract

gave with Professor Karen Engle to the Women’s Law Caucus of the University of Utah College of Law in the spring of 1994. The research for this paper was funded by grants from the Faculty Development Committee. I would like to thank Tawni Anderson for her research assistance. 1. See KATHARINE T. BARTLETT & ANGELA P. HARRIS, GENDER AND LAW: THEORY, DOCTRINE, COMMENTARY 750-51 (2d ed. 1998) 2. See, e.g., CATHERINE MACKINNON, SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WORKING WOMEN (1979) (MacKinnon’s work substantially contributed to the recognition of sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII). 3. For example, we have seen increased responsiveness to domestic violence. See BARTLETT & HARRIS, supra note 1, at 566-70. 4. See Leslie Bender, A Lawyer’s Primer on Feminist Theory and Tort, 38 J. LEGAL EDUC. 3 (1988); Lucinda M. Finley, A Break in the Silence: Including Women’s Issues in a Torts Course, 1 YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 41 (1989); Carl Tobias, Gender Issues and the Prosser, Wade, and Schwartz Torts Casebook, 18 GOLDEN GATE U. L. REV. 495 (1988). 5. See Mary Irene Coombs, Crime in the Stacks, or a Tale of a Text: A Feminist Response to a Criminal Law Textbook, 38 J. LEGAL EDUC. 117 (1988); Nancy S. Erickson and Nadine Taub, Final Report: “Sex Bias in the Teaching of Criminal Law,” 42 RUTGERS L. REV. 309 (1990). 6. Mary Joe Frug, Rescuing Impossibility Doctrine: A Postmodern Feminist Analysis of Contract Law, 140 U. PA. L. REV. 1029, 1030 (1992) [hereinafter Rescuing Impossibility Doctrine] (quoting letter from W. David Slawson, Professor of Law, University of Southern California, to Mary Joe Frug 2 (June 24, 1988)). See also Patricia Tidwell & Peter Linzer, The Flesh-Colored Band Aid—Contracts, Feminism, Dialogue and Norms, 28 HOUS. L. REV. 791, 800 n.48 (1991) (suggesting that the letter led to a “brouhaha of modest proportions”). 7. The number of scholars exploring the topic of feminism’s influence on contract doctrine is small but growing. Examples of writing on the subject include: Elizabeth S. Anderson, Women and Contracts: No New Deal, 88 MICH. L. REV. 1792 (1990) (reviewing CAROLE PATEMENT, THE SEXUAL CONTRACT (1988)); Jean Braucher, Contract v. Contractarianism: The Regulatory Role of Contract Law, 47 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 697 (1990); Clare Dalton, An Essay in the FEMINISTS & CONTRACT DOCTRINE