Martha Fineman - Publications

Publications

Fineman has published widely, and, according to one study, is the eighth most cited scholar of critical legal theory. Her books are

• The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition (Princeton University Press, 2013)
• The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency (The New Press, 2004)
• The Neutered Mother, the Sexual Family, and Other Twentieth Century Tragedies (Routledge, 1995)
• The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform (University of Chicago Press, 1991).

Fineman has also edited or co-edited the following critical legal theory volumes:

• Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory (Routledge, 2010)
• What Is Right for Children? The Competing Paradigms of Religion and Human Rights (Ashgate, 2009; co-editor Karen Worthington)
• Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations (Ashgate, 2009, co-editors Jack E. Jackson and Adam P. Romero)
• Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus: Gender, Law, and Society (Cornell University Press, 2005; co-editor Terrance Doherty)
• Feminism, Media, and the Law (Oxford University Press, 1997; co-editor Martha T. McCluskey)
• Mothers in Law: Feminism and the Legal Regulation of Motherhood (Columbia University Press, 1995; co-editor Isabel Karpin)
• The Public Nature of Private Violence: Women and the Discovery of Abuse (Routledge, 1994, co-editor Roxanne Mykitiuk)
• At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory (Routledge, 1990, co-editor Nancy Sweet Thomadsen).

At the Boundaries of Law is the first volume of feminist legal theory.

She has published numerous journal articles and essays. Her most widely cited articles include

• "Dominant discourse, professional language, and legal change in child custody decisionmaking", Harvard Law Review, Vol. 101, No. 4 (Feb., 1988), pp. 727-774 (cited over 500 times as of 2012)
• "Images of Mothers in Poverty Discourses", Duke Law Journal, Vol. 1991, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), pp. 274-295
• "Implementing Equality: Ideology, Contradiction and Social Change-A Study of Rhetoric and Results in the Regulation of the Consequences of Divorce", Wisconsin Law Review, 789 (1983)
• "Cracking the Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, and Self-Sufficiency", American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 8, no.1 (2000): 13-29
• "The Uses of Social Science Data in Legal Policymaking: Custody Determinations at Divorce", Wisconsin Law Review, 107 (1987)
• "Challenging Law, Establishing Differences: The Future of Feminist Legal Scholarship", Florida Law Review, 42, 1 (1990)
• "Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric", Virginia Law Review, 81, 2181 (1995)
• "Law and Changing Patterns of Behavior: Sanctions on Non-Marital Cohabitation", Wisconsin Law Review, 275 (1981)
• "Intimacy Outside of the Natural Family: The Limits of Privacy", Connecticut Law Review, 23, 955 (1990-1991)
• "Contract and Care", Chicago-Kent Law Review, 76, 1403 (2000-2001)
• "Feminist Theory in Law: The Difference It Makes", Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 1 (1992)