title: The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change
author:  Judith A. Baer 
description: <br>"Two of our nation's most distinguished constitutional scholars have superbly integrated history, court structure, and judicial politics with case law and commentary. This book is so well-written and approachable, scholarly, and complete in the range and depth of its discussion of the hot-button constitutional issues facing women (constitutional equality, employment and family law, reproductive freedom, education, and crime) that I plan to use it in my courses."--Ron Kahn, <em>Oberlin College</em>
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  [Dedication](index_split_003.html#filepos3725)  
  
  To my dear readers—
  
  To those of you who wrote to me years ago
  
  when my Falcon Club series first began,
  
  already begging for Peregrine and Lady Justice’s love story,
  
  and to my readers who recently discovered
  
  the Falcon Club and have asked me
  
  if I would ever write this romance,
  
  this book is especially for you.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Epigraphs](index_split_003.html#filepos3852)
  
  > “The exercise of the natural rights of woman has no other limits than those
  > that the perpetual tyranny of man opposes to them; these limits must be
  > reformed according to the laws of nature and reason.”
  
  > > —OLYMPE DE GOUGES, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
  
  > “The marriage relation as constituted by [English] law . . . confers upon
  > one of the parties to the contract, legal power & control over the person,
  > property, and freedom of action of the other party, independent of her own
  > wishes and will.”
  
  > 