Previous Material Explain how the Supreme Court has treated abortion Explain what the right to privacy is and explain the ruling in Roe v Wade Explain what the undue burden test is and explain how the Supreme Court has viewed various restrictions on abortion Explain the magnitude of the pay gap between men and women and specifically explain why some argue that the pay gap is about 77 cents to the dollar whereas others argue that it is somewhere around 88 91 cents to the dollar Explain what sexual harassment is legally Describe the debate over the reasonable person standard Describe two cases where sexual harassment was claimed including one where the court jury decided that the defendant was not guilty of harassment and one where the court jury decided that the defendant was guilty of harassment Are First Amendment rights absolute in cases of harassment Explain who can file a complaint for sexual harassment Explain what parts of government are involved in assessing sexual harassment complaints Describe three differences in communication between men and women Pornography What is the legal definition of obscenity How does it differ from the definition of pornography What has been the traditional view of pornography What is the evidence that pornography is harmful Explain why it is difficult to design empirical studies that examine whether pornography is harmful What are radical liberal and Marxist socialist views on pornography 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Military 10 11 12 13 14 What are the goals of the military What are the relevant issues when talking about gender and the military What is the current status of women in the military What are possible future scenarios for women in the military What was the historical status of women in the military Women served as nurses in most war Several women served undercover disguised as men Before the professionalized military women and families sometimes travelled with soldiers to help support the troops cooking nursing etc In the 1920s nurses were recognized as officers but not with full rights and privileges as other officers In World War II there was a Women s Army Corps WAC the Women Airforce Service Pilots WASP and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service in the Navy Waves These were considered eventually part of the regular forces In the 1970s the first women became appointed as rear admirals and major generals brigadier generals and chaplains In 2008 the first woman is promoted to four start general by the U S Army In 2013 the Pentagon ended their policy of no women in combat Each branch will examine the new lift on the ban on women in combat and opportunities will become available over time The first women to join Virginia class attack subs were recently chosen female officers are scheduled to report to their subs in 2015 It is not clear when women will have opportunities to serve in Special Forces What are some concerns about women in the military Strength issues cohesion among troops perspective of colleagues and of enemy forces resources etc What accounts for this change Changes in gender roles recruitment needs changing style of warfare 14 15 What are liberal radical and Marxist socialist views about women in the military How do other countries treat women in the military Gender Crime Criminal Justice 16 How is the rehabilitation versus mandatory sentencing debate relevant to gender crime Mandatory sentencing in general removes bias although those who object to mandatory sentence points out that it also removes the ability to recognize differences between individual situations and the criminal justice system court system in the U S is very much as case by case system traditionally Moreover some laws such as laws that require life in prison upon conviction for a third felony have unintended consequences in that they make it much less likely that the accused will plea bargain and plea guilty with a reduced sentence 17 What has been the history for research on gender crime The 19th century research tended to see crime as inborn as a reflection of a biological flaw And recall this is a time period when in general the idea that some individuals were better or more worthwhile and more fit to reproduce was not uncommon Recall eugenics Women criminals were seen as either born criminals these were women who were seen as very masculine very implusive and hedonistic and wild unable to control themselves in a variety of ways including sexually Other women were seen as merely falling into hard times or coming under the influence of male criminals Feminist scholars of criminology argue that one reason that the research tends to stereotype women is that there were very few women scholars studying criminology and that the researchers of the time did not actually ask the individuals who had been in the criminal justice correction systems 18 What is the empirical reality about gender differences in commission victimization What are some possible reasons for these differences How have gender differences changed over time What are radical liberal and Marxist views about gender crime What is the poststructuralist view on gender crime Women commit fewer crimes than men That may be because they are less mobile less likely across the 20 th century to be employed outside the home or to be travelling outside the home less likely to have the opportunity or incentive to commit crimes Women may also be more risk averse than men studies indicate that women tend to provide higher estimates of the likelihood of apprehension When individuals commit crime women are less likely to commit violent crimes than men This may be because of biological differences women are either less risk averse or more community centered or because of socialization women are socialized to be more community centered and come under more disapproval for committing crimes 19 What are some possible reasons for the possible narrowing of a gender gap in crime Possible explanations for changes in crime rates and for changes in the gender gap in crimes rates are the liberalization hypothesis changes in the definition of crime the economic marginalization hypothesis etc The key thing to remember is that crime has dropped across the 1990s and since men committed most crime this is most true of men Moreover as we have increased the importance and penalties for some crimes the demographics of the correction system has changed when women commit crime it is relatively likely that they commit drug