Review
“Concentrating on contentious issues such as severity and pervasiveness, reasonableness standards, unwelcomeness, causation, employer liability, and remedies, Beiner highlights the mismatches between the law and empirical research and suggests both legal reforms and research questions to close the gap. Written in clear, compelling prose, the study will enlighten readers curious about contemporary questions in sexual harassment law as well as specialists interested in the intersection of law and social science.”
-Choice,highly recommended
“Fortunately, Beiner is not only a law professor: she also has practiced law and is clearly well acquainted with the difficulties of getting these cases before a jury. Her book seeks to help plaintiffs survive summary judgment so they can prove their cases in court.”
-Trial Magazine
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“Beiner8217:s book is a striking example of the thoughtful and clever use of social science research findings to point to changes that will improve the operation of an important US social institution.”
-Labour/Le Travail
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“A readable synthesis of legal rules and real life, accessible to both lawyers and non-lawyers--for all those interested in reducing sexual harassment on the job. Beiner makes a crucial contribution to the discussion of sexual harassment by demonstrating the relevance of social science research to legal doctrine. She convincingly exposes the limited effectiveness of current case law in preventing sexual harassment and demonstrates that federal judges often make decisions based on myths and stereotypes about how people behave, not on the reality women face in the workplace.”
-Martha S. West,University of California Davis, co-author of Sex-Based Discrimination
“In this timely and important book, Beiner explores the growing disconnect between judges’ unfounded assumptions about how people respond to sexualized conduct in the workplace and what empirical research in the social sciences is telling us about the same subject. In many arenas, the antidiscrimination doctrine emerging from the federal courts is being built on a foundation of ‘junk social science.’ Beiner shines a light on this problem as it has manifested in the evolving law of sexual harassment.”
-Linda Hamilton Krieger,Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley, School of Law
About the Author
Theresa M. Beiner is professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law.
