Unconstitutionally Male?: The Story of United States v. Virginia

Authors

Katharine T. Bartlett, Duke Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Chapter of Book

Publication Date

2011

Keywords

sex discrimination, Virginia Military Institute, gender equality, book chapter

Abstract

This article tracks the different views of gender equality reflected in United States v. Virginia, from trial through the various appeals, including the 1996 opinion of the United States Supreme Court, and through the actual integration of women into VMI. It highlights the fact that while many views of equality were represented in the case throughout its history, no party and no court addressed what is arguably the most objectionable feature of VMI, which was not that it excluded women, but that its "unique" pedagogical method was based on an explicitly demeaning and subordinating view of women.

Citation

Katharine T. Bartlett, Unconstitutionally Male?: The Story of United States v. Virginia, in Women and the Law Stories 133-177 (Elizabeth Schneider & Stephanie Wildman eds., 2011)