A J Mackinnon

Catharine MacKinnon is a prominent American feminist legal scholar and activist, holding professorships at the University of Michigan Law School and Harvard Law School. Her extensive work focuses on international law, constitutional law, and political theory, with a particular emphasis on women's rights, sexual abuse, and exploitation. MacKinnon was among the first to articulate the legal concept of sexual harassment as sex discrimination and to argue that pornography constitutes a violation of civil rights.

Born in Minneapolis, MacKinnon is a third-generation Smith College alumna and holds degrees from Yale Law School and Yale University. Throughout her career, she has been a visiting scholar at numerous prestigious institutions worldwide. Her research and activism have significantly shaped legal discourse and policy concerning sexual harassment in employment and education, and she has been a leading figure in challenging the legal and social frameworks surrounding pornography and prostitution.

Catharine MacKinnon's groundbreaking work in the late 1970s established sexual harassment as a legal claim grounded in sex discrimination. Her 1979 book, "Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination," provided the foundational arguments for viewing sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. She also conceptualized sexual harassment in education as sex discrimination actionable under Title IX, influencing early litigation. MacKinnon's analysis posited that sexual harassment perpetuates women's social inequality and distinguished between "quid pro quo" harassment and a hostile work environment. These frameworks were adopted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, where MacKinnon served as co-counsel.

Alongside Andrea Dworkin, MacKinnon developed a radical approach to pornography, framing it not as a matter of morality or obscenity, but as a civil rights violation and a form of sex discrimination. They defined pornography as material that graphically subordinates women, dehumanizes them as objects, and depicts them in contexts of degradation and harm. MacKinnon argued that pornography causally contributes to violence and discrimination against women. Their efforts led to the drafting of anti-pornography civil rights ordinances in cities like Minneapolis and Indianapolis, proposing that women harmed by pornography should have legal recourse against its producers and distributors. While these ordinances faced legal challenges and were ultimately struck down, they initiated a significant debate on the legal status and societal impact of pornography.

MacKinnon holds distinguished academic positions, including the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Her expertise spans international law, constitutional law, and political theory, with a consistent focus on women's rights and issues of sexual abuse and exploitation. She has also served as a special gender adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. MacKinnon's extensive body of work, including over a dozen books, has made her a widely cited scholar and a regular public speaker on topics ranging from sexual harassment and pornography to prostitution and sex trafficking.

“"quid pro quo", meaning sexual harassment "in which sexual compliance is exchanged, or proposed to be exchanged, for an employment opportunity (p. 32)"”

“the type of harassment that "arises when sexual harassment is a persistent condition of work (p. 32)"”

“"Without question," then-Justice Rehnquist wrote for a unanimous Court, "when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate because of the subordinate's sex, that supervisor 'discriminate[s]' on the basis of sex."”

“the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words that also includes women dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities; enjoying pain or humiliation or rape; being tied up, cut up, mutilated, bruised, or physically hurt; in postures of sexual submission or servility or display; reduced to body parts, penetrated by objects or animals, or presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture; shown as filthy or inferior; bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual.”

“Pornography, in the feminist view, is a form of forced sex, a practice of sexual politics, and institution of gender inequality”