Symposium on The History and Future of the Economic Equity Act

"Congressional Power to Effect Sex Equity: The History and Future of the Economic Equity Act" is the topic of a symposium this Thursday, February 21, at Harvard Law School. Here's the announcement:

Patricia Seith (credit)

This symposium, hosted by the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, explores the efforts of the Congressional Women’s Caucus and, more specifically, the Economic Equity Act, an omnibus piece of legislation active in Congress throughout the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. A bipartisan effort, the Economic Equity Act sought to improve the lives of women by tackling the economic challenges they faced as homemakers and caregivers, workers, consumers, and business owners. Focusing on practical reforms in areas such as tax, insurance, employee and retirement benefits, and credit and lending, the Act’s many successful provisions aimed to achieve sex equality not in theory, but in fact.

The event is tied to an article that we are publishing this winter, entitled Congressional Power to Effect Sex Equality and written by Patricia Seith. The article will provide a springboard for a discussion of efforts to legislate toward gender and class equity in the past and implications for the present and future. Confirmed speakers include Congresswomen Elizabeth Holtzman and Pat Schroeder, and scholars Alice Kessler-Harris (Columbia), Stephen Ansolabehere (Harvard University), Serena Mayeri (Penn Law), Patricia Seith (Stanford Law), and Suzanne Kahn (Columbia). A wine and cheese reception will follow. All are welcome!

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We will update* the post when an electronic version of Seith's paper comes online. A few of the responses are already available:

Suzanne Kahn, Valuing Women’s Work in the 1970s Home and the Boundaries of the Gendered Imagination

Serena Mayeri, Filling in the (Gender) Gaps

For additional details, follow the link.

*UPDATE: Page proofs for Seith's article are available here, at SSRN.