Telling Stories Out of Court

by O'Brien, Ruth; Featherstone, Liza

• ISBN13: 9780801473579
• ISBN10: 0801473578
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

"Few of the countless real-life stories of workplace discrimination suffered by men and women every day are ever told publicly. This book boldly and eloquently rights that wrong, going where no plaintiff testimony could ever dare because these stories are often too raw, honest, ambiguous, and nuanced to be told in court or reported in a newspaper."-from the Foreword. Telling Stories Out of Court reaches readers on both an intellectual and an emotional level, helping them think, feel, and share the experiences of women who have faced sexism and discrimination at work. It focuses on how the federal courts interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To do so, this book uses fiction. Offering insights that law texts alone cannot, the short stories collected here-all but two written for this volume-help readers concentrate on the emotional content of the experience with less emphasis on the particulars of the law. Grouped into thematic parts titled "In Their Proper Place," "Unfair Treatment," "Sexual Harassment," and "Hidden Obstacles," the narratives are combined with interpretive commentary and legal analysis that anchors the book by revealing the impact this revolutionary law had on women in the workplace. At the same time, the stories succeed on their own terms as compelling works of fiction, from "LaKeesha's Job Interview," in which a woman's ambition to move from welfare to work faces an ironic obstacle, to "Plato, Again," in which a woman undergoing treatment for cancer finds her career crumble under her, to "Vacation Days," which takes the reader inside the daily routine of a nanny who works at the whim of her employer.

Author Biography

Ruth O'Brien is Professor and Executive Officer of the Political Science PhD Program at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Women's Work: Writing Politics, Sharing Stories	p. 1
In Their Proper Place
Dream Man	p. 21
LaKeesha's Job Interview	p. 29
Games Women Play	p. 34
Gender Roles: Roadblocks to Equality?	p. 40
Unfair Treatment
Getting Even	p. 53
Trading Patients	p. 68
Flint	p. 80
Bad Intentions	p. 90
Sexual Harassment
Plato, Again	p. 111
Be Who You Are	p. 116
Hwang's Missing Hand	p. 130
Sexual Harassment: Gaining Respect and Equality	p. 146
Hidden Obstacles
Artifact	p. 161
Final Cut	p. 176
Vacation Days	p. 192
It's All in the Numbers: The Toll Discrimination Takes	p. 198
Notes	p. 213
Contributors	p. 235
Index	p. 239
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