Social Cognition 'At Work:' Schema Theory and Lesbian and Gay Identity in Title VII

Brower, Todd

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1213262

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In my experience, once that change is made, students almost immediately posit that John and Charlotte were a couple. The professor may then ask students why they saw the possible relationship when the facts appeared to be the actions of a different-sex couple, but not a same-sex one (Brower, 2009). This shift may start a conversation about baselines and how 'neutral' or 'default' rules often assume heterosexual, white, able-bodied, cisgendered, etc.…”

Section: Methodology and Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

INTEGRATING DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION IN LEGAL EDUCATION: TEACHING WHERE IT’S UNEXPECTED

2023

Education and New Developments 2023 – Volume 2

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In today's multicultural world, young professionals and would-be professionals must understand and be competent to serve people from diverse races, ethnicities, sexualities, and other backgrounds different from their own. Yet ordinarily when we introduce issues of diversity and inclusion in the classroom, we do so in cases and situations that specifically raise the topic like anti-discrimination matters or adoption by cross-racial or same-sex couples. In such explicit matters, it is easy to see that those issues are relevant, significant, and deserving of classroom attention. Unsurprisingly, using cases with a clear connection to fairness and equality is a common technique for ensuring that students see and appreciate historical and social meaning and context to better understand doctrine and how that context affects clients and others who face these situations. This traditional approach has the advantage of being easily understood by beginning law students, since the diversity issues are visible and concrete. Nevertheless, not every foundational course or textbook includes cases or legal rules in which race, gender, disability, or other characteristics are central to the doctrinal topic. Indeed, most do not. Rather than defer to other classes or wait for those few times when teachers have cases that call out for equity and bias analysis, this paper recommends an alternate approach: raising diversity and inclusion in cases and contexts where students may not expect it. This method capitalizes on the nature and context of pre-professional training: students will leave school and work with clients. Even if they are not noted in legal opinions and textbooks, litigants have race, economic status, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical or mental abilities, gender identity, or some combination of these and many other dimensions. Our apprentice and novice professional students will have clients who also have these features, just as students, their classmates and teachers do. This paper shows how to teach students to see who and what lies hidden behind diversity-blind, neutral doctrine. It also addresses the challenges involved with the method and how to overcome them.

show abstract

Section: Methodology and Pedagogymentioning

confidence: 99%

INTEGRATING DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION IN LEGAL EDUCATION: TEACHING WHERE IT’S UNEXPECTED

2023

Education and New Developments 2023 – Volume 2

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As Tversky and Kahneman (1973) showed, expected and commonplace information recedes in value and passes unnoticed. Since heterosexuality is the default, people sometimes do not even notice that heterosexuals have a sexual orientation (Brower, 2009;Kramer, 2009). Similarly one may not recognize that theoretical constructs around gender assume the centrality of heterosexuality even as they protest it.…”

Section: Lesbian/gay Identity and Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This non-individualization of lesbians and gay men robs them of agency. In Bem's quote heterosexuals are gender-transgressive by doing -through their own choices and actions; sexual minorities are gender-transgressive by being -through their status, regardless of their individual desires and behaviours (Brower, 2009;Rene, 2002). Law's, Marcosson's, and Bem's constructs effectively permit society and culture to assign gender identity to lesbians and gay men; they are not actors, but acted upon by others.…”

Section: Lesbian/gay Identity and Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How judges decide: lesbian/gay identity and social cognition

Brower¹

2011

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose -Borrowing from the literature on social cognition and schema theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine sexual orientation and sex discrimination, to critique and refine that doctrine, particularly when traditional gender roles are enforced in workplaces. The insights of cognitive schemas on lesbian and gay identity are employed to link models of judicial decision making and gender/sexual orientation. Design/methodology/approach -Methodologically, the paper is located in the sociolegal tradition, but also uses case analysis to supplement and advance its thesis. Because US nondiscrimination law distinguishes between sexuality and gender discrimination, it provides a unique laboratory to critique not only American law, but the structure of nondiscrimination law generally. Findings -Judges' and others' schemas of lesbian and gay men suggest explanations for the analytical confusion in nondiscrimination law. Additionally, the paper's specific findings both supplement and question aspects of extant models of judicial decision making and gender/sexuality. Originality/value -Social cognition framework enables judges and commentators to reconceptualize facts and relevant doctrine in gender and sexual orientation discrimination cases and to critique some fundamental assumptions of nondiscrimination law. Further, because the paper bridges judicial decision making and gender/sexuality, researchers in those areas can use this analysis of a specific legal context to provide additional insights into how those models work and their underlying, hidden assumptions. This is a conference paper based on this author's work on schema theory and sexual orientation identity in nondiscrimination law.

show abstract

Employment Discrimination against Bisexuals and Others with Fluid Identities

Tweedy

Yescavage

2013

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social Cognition 'At Work:' Schema Theory and Lesbian and Gay Identity in Title VII

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

INTEGRATING DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION IN LEGAL EDUCATION: TEACHING WHERE IT’S UNEXPECTED

INTEGRATING DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION IN LEGAL EDUCATION: TEACHING WHERE IT’S UNEXPECTED

How judges decide: lesbian/gay identity and social cognition

Employment Discrimination against Bisexuals and Others with Fluid Identities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About