LAW455

Legal Seminar: Women, Law and Social Change

(Tomaszewski)

Prerequisite courses: 

Prerequisite for: 

Instructor(s): Jennifer Tomaszewski

Course credit: 3

Method of presentation: Lecture/seminar

Teamwork:

METHOD OF EVALUATION

1. Class Participation – 10%

Come to class prepared to discuss readings.

2.  Class Presentation – 30%

Take responsibility for explaining an assigned or supplemental reading to class. Prepare slides and discussion questions for class discussion on the topic.

3.  Final Paper – 60%

Research a topic relating to the themes in this class. Develop a position, assess, support through research, and critically analyze the issues in a paper of 3750-5000 words. 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the relationship between law and social change with a focus on the historical and current struggles to make the legal system more responsive to the lived realities of women, from an intersectional perspective. Women have historically been excluded from a wide range of legal rights and responsibilities including higher education, political office, voting, and the professions. These exclusions are felt most acutely by those most historically marginalized due to some aspect of their identity including gender identity, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and Indigeneity.  In Canada, the law has played an important role in the ongoing struggle for full equality and citizenship. Yet not everyone would agree that law has the potential to answer demands for fundamental change or to respond to women’s diverse realities. We explore these themes and debates through a series of case studies. Topics include legal education, legal personhood, legal language, judicial bias, myths and stereotypes about women and other groups, sexual assault, employement, abortion and reproductive justice, Indigenous women, property, judicial decision-making, equality rights, LGBTQIA2S+, and current issues including technology-facilitated violence. While we will refer to some current cases, some of the cases/articles are older as we are examining how social change has occurred for women through law.

SPECIAL COMMENTS

This course is conducted through a combination of presentations by the instructors, guest instructors, student discussions/presentations, and small group discussions. Students are expected to complete and think about required readings for each class and then come to class prepared to raise at least one question about the readings.

Description updated 2025-26. Please contact the instructor for any specific questions you may have related to this particular course section.

REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY):

There is no required text.