This joint plenary session will explore multiple dimensions of the relationship between marriage and equality. The plenary will consider “marriage equality” in the familiar sense of the changing landscape as more states open up civil marriage to same-sex couples alongside “marriage inequality,” which is the growing, class- and race-based marriage divide that some commentators warn is leading to marriage “haves” and “have nots.” Questions about marriage and equality will include: the place of marriage versus nonmarital relationships in contemporary family life and law; the intersection of marriage equality with concerns for family diversity and pluralism; appropriate public policy responses to the growing separation of marriage and parenthood; and equality within marriage, including issues regarding the division of labor at home and work. Overall, panelists will consider what the relationship is between formal and substantive equality and whether classic feminist analyses are relevant to present-day problems.
Marsha Garrison, Brooklyn Law School
Garrison Abstract
Clare Huntington, Fordham University School of Law
Huntington Abstract
Holning S. Lau, University of North Carolina School of Law
Lau Abstract
Robin A. Lenhardt, Fordham University School of Law
Lenhardt Abstract
Elizabeth L. MacDowell, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law
MacDowell Abstract