Knowra Catharine A. MacKinnon Catharine A. MacKinnon Catharine A. MacKinnon is an American feminist legal scholar, lawyer, and activist whose work reshaped legal debates over sexual harassment, pornography, and sex equality.
Sexual harassment : Unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that affects a person’s work, education, or other conditions of participation. MacKinnon framed workplace sexual harassment as sex discrimination under employment law.
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson : A 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case recognizing hostile-environment sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII. MacKinnon’s scholarship helped shape the legal framework applied to this landmark harassment case.
Andrea Dworkin : An American feminist writer and activist known for her critique of pornography and male dominance. Dworkin co-developed the antipornography civil-rights approach with MacKinnon.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution : The constitutional provision protecting freedoms including speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition in the United States. Opponents argued that MacKinnon and Dworkin’s proposed ordinances restricted constitutionally protected expression.
Sex discrimination : Unequal treatment because of a person’s sex, including discrimination based on sex stereotypes. Her legal arguments place sexual harassment within the broader structure of sex discrimination.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 : A U.S. federal law prohibiting employment discrimination on grounds including race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Her harassment theory established how sex discrimination under Title VII can include a hostile work environment.
Robin Morgan : An American feminist poet, writer, and activist associated with the women’s liberation movement. Morgan’s feminist activism formed part of the movement context in which MacKinnon’s work circulated.
American Civil Liberties Union : A U.S. nonprofit organization that litigates and advocates for civil liberties, including freedom of expression. The ACLU opposed the antipornography ordinances on free-speech grounds.
Dominance feminism : A feminist theory that analyzes gender inequality through the social and sexual dominance of men over women. MacKinnon’s account of gender hierarchy is a central statement of this approach.
Antipornography civil-rights ordinances : Proposed laws that treated pornography as a civil-rights violation when it subordinated or discriminated against women. MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin drafted model ordinances advancing this legal approach.
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