University of Virginia Library

Women And The Law —
Ban 'Special Privileges'

By MARIANNE McGLYNN

Women are controversial; the
laws pertaining to them only more
so. Charles Whitebread, Associate
Professor in the School of Law, has
filled in the gaps to these legal
controversies concerning women
with his own energetic analysis in
his speech before a mixed audience
at the Prism last Wednesday night.

Bleak History

He first discussed the history of
women's rights-"It's bleak-its just
that simple." There was a period in
the development of Anglo Saxon
Law when married women had
equal rights with men. This,
however, was quelled by its
replacement by English Common
Law which made a wife subservient
to her husband.

Professor Whitebread then
devoted his time to the impact that
marriage has on a woman's name,
domicile, and employment
opportunities.

Basically a married woman finds
it almost impossible to keep her
maiden name if her husband won't
let her. Even when the husband
wins a divorce case, his former wife,
as an "extra-punishment" has to
"bear his lousy name." Prof.
Whitebread said that this needed to
be changed.

Legal Domicile

The problem of legal domicile is
solved by making the wife's
location the same as the husband's.

The last and most crucial impact
he discussed was employment
opportunities. Only "bona fide
occupational qualifications" can
deny a person a job on the basis of
sex. These are jobs such as acting,
bathroom attending or go-go
dancing. Even sex appeal excuses
are limited according to Prof.
Whitebread even though many
airlines still get away with
discriminating against men in their
hiring of stewardesses, and some
newspapers still have separate help
wanted male and female columns.
There are many such cases pending
before the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
by both sexes.

The ambiguity of many laws
protecting women today is that
they in fact deny them their equal
rights. By giving women certain
"privileges" and not allowing them
to carry heavy loads or work
overtime these laws are denying
women access to certain jobs. In
theory, also, when women are
considered apart from men they are
given a certain "ingrained second
class status."

On this reasoning Whitebread
said that there really was no need
for an equality amendment in the
constitution for women but that if
one has to be passed it must not
have a "special privileges" clause. It
must be up to the courts and the
EEOC to decide the specific
equality rights according to the
woman and the job.