When Sex Counts: Making Babies and Making Law

Should a woman who refuses a ‘medically necessary’ C-section be prosecuted for the murder of her stillborn child? Should a pregnant drug-addict be arrested for distributing narcotics to a minor? Why do people continue to frown upon public breastfeeding, when the law protects it as a mother’s right? Is date rape a less serious harm than stranger rape? Does an employer who requires female, but not male, employees to wear makeup discriminate on the basis of sex? Should employers protect women from hazardous work conditions solely on the grounds that they may become pregnant? Through these ripped-from-the-headlines, contemporary examples, law professor and legal commentator Sherry Colb explores the current terrain of the battle between the sexes. In her intriguing and ever-so-timely book, she makes a compelling social, legal, and political case for taking a person’s sex into account for some matters but not for all. While unspoken biases persist in government agencies, in the courts, in business, and elsewhere, When Sex Counts takes a hard look at sex discrimination and examines how emerging law and public policy grapple with the differences between the sexes while simultaneously struggling to maintain a commitment to equal treatment under the law.