CU lands top scholar in feminist jurisprudence

Martha Fineman, the Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Feminist Jurisprudence, in her Myron Taylor Hall office. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

In January, Martha L. A. Fineman joined the Cornell Law School as the first Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Feminist Jurisprudence. The Clarke chair is the first endowed chair in the United States devoted to the study of feminist jurisprudence.

Fineman also will head the new Dorothea S. Clarke Feminism and Legal Theory Program. She comes to Cornell from the Columbia University School of Law, where she was the Maurice T. Moore Professor. Her appointment represents a major addition to Cornell's law faculty.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to build a strong program in feminism and legal studies and to attract exceptional graduate students interested in those areas," said Fineman. "I also want to bring together people from history, anthropology, political theory and other areas who are interested in how the law works in the larger society."

She wants the program to become an interdisciplinary center where theorists might gather two or three times a year to discuss such subjects as work and family. She also hopes to bring to campus visiting scholars from different disciplines who have insights on women and the law.

In making the appointment, Cornell solicited the views of experts in Fineman's fields of scholarship. All described her as a top thinker in family law and feminist legal theory. One of her peers observed that Fineman is "the foremost feminist scholar in family policy and family law in America today." Another called Fineman "the most interesting legal scholar in her field" and commented that colleagues view some of her articles as "canonical." Her work is considered obligatory reading for anyone working in family law, poverty law and political theory.

Fineman also is known as a superb classroom teacher and strong institutional presence wherever she has taught. Her former colleagues report that she spends much time reading and commenting on the drafts of other scholars' work. They also commend her for providing leadership and support to a national community of young feminist legal scholars, who see her law school as 'home' for their endeavors. "Her energy is amazing," one commented.

Fineman is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, symposia pieces and other scholarly writings. Two of her books, The Neutered Mother (Routledge, 1995) and The Illusion of Equality (University of Chicago, 1991) are viewed as substantial original works and have been widely and favorably reviewed. In addition she coedited a series of influential books that grew out of conferences sponsored by the Feminism and Legal Theory Program, which she helped found in 1984 at the University of Wisconsin. The books include Mothers in Law (Columbia University, 1996) and Feminism, Media and the Law (Oxford University, 1998). A two-volume book, Feminism Confronts Economic Theory, is forthcoming, and Fineman is hard at work on another book, which argues for rewriting our social contract so that responsibility for dependent members might be spread more equitably across society. "It's sorely needed," she says.

The Dorothea S. Clarke Professorship of Feminist Jurisprudence and the Dorothea S. Clarke Feminism and Legal Theory Program are provided through gifts from Dorothea S. Clarke and Jack G. Clarke, LL.B. '52.

Adapted from a March 1999 Cornell Law Forum article.