Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2007
Abstract
This essay seeks to explain the Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education case as an interpretation of discrimination that notably and correctly focuses on how institutions cause sex-based harm, rather than on whether officials within chosen institutions act with a discriminatory intent. In the process, I discuss what appears to be the implicit theory of discrimination underlying the Davis decision: that schools cause the discrimination by exacerbating the harm that results from sexual harassment by students. I then explore the significance of the deliberate indifference requirement in this context, concluding that the standard, for all its flaws, is distinct from and superior to a search for discriminatory intent. The final section offers a brief analysis of what Davis could mean for discrimination law more broadly if courts seriously applied the insights embedded in the Davis case.
Recommended Citation
Deborah L. Brake,
Perceiving Subtle Sexism: Mapping the Social-Psychological Forces and Legal Narratives that Obscure Gender Bias,
16
Columbia Journal of Gender and Law
679
(2007).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/360
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Education Law Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender Equity in Education Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Women's Studies Commons