Book Reviews : Michael W. McCann, Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, 358pp
| Author | Judy Fudge |
| Published date | 01 December 1995 |
| Date | 01 December 1995 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/096466399500400419 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
549
political
will
to
provide
a
criminal
defence
service
more
capable
of
showing
why
contested
prosecution
cases
have
taken
the
form
that
they
have;
and
if
not,
why
not?’
(p.
x)
The
authors
of
this
particular
book
could
not
have
been
expected
to
turn
to
and
answer
those
questions,
but
they
remain,
none
the
less,
and
the
need
for
their
theorization
is
as
urgent
today
as
it
has
ever
been.
This
is
a
first
rate
book.
I
shall
be
recommending
it
on
methods,
sociology
of
law
and
professions
courses,
and
it
should
be
mandatory
reading
for
all
criminology,
law and
social
work
students.
Teachers,
with
the
imagination
to
investigate
further
all
of
the
very
important
questions
raised
about
the
nature
of
criminal
law
in
societies
’standing
accused’
of
being
incapable
of
producing
criminal
justice
without
a
greater
commitment
to
social
justice
in
general,
could
usefully
organize
a
whole
course
around
this
excellent
volume.
PAT
CARLEN
Department
of
Criminology,
Keele
University,
UK
MICHAEL
W.
McCArrrr,
Rights
at
Work:
Pay
Equity
Reform
and
the
Politics
of
Legal
Mobilization.
Chicago:
University
of
Chicago
Press,
1994,
358pp.
In
his
impressive
book,
Rights
at
Work,
Michael
McCann
employs
a
legal
mobilization
framework
to
understand
how
legal
discourses
and
legal
tactics
shaped
the
politics
of
pay
equity
reform.
His
’central
aim
is
to
explore
&dquo;rights
at
work&dquo;
in
two
different
but
interconnected
senses’
(p.
3).
These
two
senses
refer
to
two
different
levels
of
analysis.
The
first
is
a
detailed
investigation
and
evaluation
of
the
significance
of
legal
norms,
tactics
and
institutional
processes
in
the
campaign
for
gender-based
pay
equity
in
the
United
States
during
the
1980s.
The
second
level
is
more
general.
McCann
develops
a
framework
for
conceptualizing
how
rights
themselves
’work’
as
cultural
conventions
in
social
practice.
These
two
levels
of
analysis
are
inextricably
connected;
not
only
does
the
legal
mobilization
framework
provide
a
structure
to
make
sense
of
the
complex
struggle
for
pay
equity,
but
also
the
case
study
illustrates
the
distinctiveness
of
McCann’s
general
analytic
approach
to
understanding
law’s
positive
contribution
to
progressive
social
movements.
Rights
at
Work
is
remarkable
for
the
extent
to
which
it
succeeds
at
both
levels.
This
is
a
rare
accomplishment.
McCann
sets
out
the
legal
mobilization
framework
in
the
introduction,
uses
it
to
structure
the
case
study
and
concludes
with
a
broader
discussion
of
how
the
analysis
of
law
he
employs
advances
a
general
understanding
of
the
use
of
reform
litigation
in
progressive
social
struggles.
This
framework
also
influences
his
methodology.
His
concern
is
to
capture
how
legal
discourses
are
mobilized
by
progressive
social
movements
both
to
develop
legal
(or
rights)
consciousness
and
as
tactical
resources.
He
employs
a
mix
of
both
quantitative
and
qualitative
methods,
including
on-site
data
collection,
in-depth
personal
interviews,
formal
surveys
and
content
analysis
of
media
coverage.
Because
he
emphasizes
law’s
constitutive
role
in
mobilizing
political
struggles,
or,
as
he
puts
it,
’the
intersubjective
dimensions
of
legal
culture’
(p. 17),
McCann
gives
a
great
deal
of
weight
to
his
interviews
with
pay
equity
activists.
The
goal
of
this
study
is ’to
advance
an
analysis
about
the
complex
manifestations
of
law
in
political
struggle
rather
than
a
defense
of
a
particular
public
policy’
(pp. 21-2).
This
helps
to
explain
the
absence
of
an
evaluation
of
the
pay
equity
movement’s
choice
of
comparative
job
evaluation
methodology
as
the
primary
strategy
for
raising
the
wages
of
women
workers
in
female
job
ghettos.
Thus,
this
book
will
have
greater
appeal
for
readers
who
are
interested
in
the
debate
about
the
political
implications
of
the
use
of
law
and
rights
by
progressive
social
movements
than
for
those
who
are
concerned
with
evaluating
comparable
worth
as
a
public
policy
for
improving
women’s
wages.
Moreover,
McCann’s
understanding
of
law
as
providing
a
range
of
cultural
conventions
accounts
for
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