The New Jim Crow And Linda Kerber's No Constitutional Right To Be Ladies

Analyzing reproductive rights through the lens of mass incarceration and citizenship Trevor Goldman Complex Cases

From 1963 to 1980 marked significant transformations in the world of reproductive rights in the United States. Professor Felicia Kornbluh’s A Woman’s Life is a Human Life looks into this complex narrative by highlighting the social and legal battles that shape reproductive justice. To deepen the understanding of Kornbluh's work, we use the learnings from comparative texts such as those provided by Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and Linda Kerber’s No Constitutional Right to be Ladies. By examining themes of systemic control and citizenship obligations, this essay reveals how intersectional discrimination within the justice

Linda Kerber’s No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies focuses on the historical exclusions of women from full citizenship, examining how legal obligations have often constrained women’s rights without affording them full citizenship privileges. This text looks into the paradox between their citizenship and their duties, such as tax obligations on those whose rights were not represented, which is shown through historical reasoning. In the text, a woman's life is a human life. There is discussion of many different themes of class, race, and gender that are explored. This is especially true in the context of legislation, and reforming such legislation will promote the reproductive rights movement. Kornbluh emphasizes how legal and societal structures shaped the discourse around women's autonomy and agency, making the inequalities more apparent than ever. On a similar note, we look at Alexander and how she believes the justice system systematically controls racial groups in a sort of new caste system. While we can see, Kornbluh looks at how rules limit women's reproductive rights because of deep-rooted social laws. For instance, Kornbluh

Just as Kerber, Kornbluh discusses how women had to deal with expectations about reproduction, often lacking true control over their choices, linking to Kerber’s ideas on unfair treatment in citizenship. Kornbluh's documentation on how diverse groups such as women of color try to gain control over reproductive rights. This makes two things clear: discrimination happens often and confirms the systemic nature highlighted by Alexander. Both texts say that to get justice, people need to fight against existing and unfair power systems to achieve justice and equality of rights. We can also make the quick connection that the text supports Kerber’s thesis on citizenship by highlighting the long-standing movement against sterilization abuse, which was predominantly targeted at minority women. This movement shows the citizenship paradox described by Kerber: marginalized groups struggle to gain the rights they should already have [Kornbluh, p. 180]. The connections of themes from A Woman’s Life is a Human Life, The New Jim Crow, and No