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New ACLU Handbook on Rights of Women;
Updated Guide Covers Discrimination and Reproductive Rights

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE    
May 7, 1993       

     From discrimination in employment and schooling to reproductive
freedom, from criminal justice issues to family law, a new American Civil
Liberties Union handbook provides a careful and concise survey of the
rights of women under current laws around the country.

     The new handbook, The Rights of Women: The Basic ACLU Guide to
Womens's Rights, is a completely revised and up-to-date version of one of
the ACLU's most popular rights handbooks. Published by Southern Illinois
University Press, the Third Edition was written by four leaders of the
women's movement: Susan Deller Ross, Isabelle Katz Pinzler, Deborah A.
Ellis, and Kary L. Moss.

     "The ACLU has been responsible for more legal victories for women's
rights than any other organization in the country," said Isabelle Katz
Pinzler, Director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project. "This educational
handbook is a crucial part of our program to educate women about their
rights."

     Written in an easy to comprehend question-and-answer format, the
handbook includes critical and basic information ranging from divorce and
custody law to sexual harassment in education and the workplace, from
sexual assault laws to fetal protection policies and prosecutions of
drug-dependent mothers.

     Norman Dorsen, the editor of the handbook series and a former
President of the ACLU, said he hopes the book will encourage women to
exercise their rights.

     "Through their exercise, rights are given life," Dorsen said. "If
they are rarely used, they may be forgotten and violations may become
routine."

     In addition to clearly establishing the federal and state
constitutional and statutory provisions upon which legal claims for gender
equality are founded, the new handbook includes chapters on:

> Employment Discrimination
> Parenting and Work
> Family Law
> Reproductive Freedom
> Liberty Rights During Pregnancy
> The Criminal Justice System
> Education
> Insurance
> Public Accomodations and Private Clubs
> The Military
> Homelessness
> The Legal System

     The four authors of the new handbook -- each respected litigators
with long experience in fighting for women's rights -- recognize both the
strides toward equality already made, and the problems that persist: "The
law today is a powerful tool for helping women -- not the source of
women's oppression it once was.  And that is an important measure of the
progress women have achieved in their slow march toward equal rights."

     "Continuing challenges from the legal system to women's equal
status," the authors conclude, "demonstrate how important it remains for
women to work together to change society, including its laws."

     The new handbook costs $7.95, plus $1.50 postage and handling. Checks
can be made payable to the American Civil Liberties Union and sent to:

                        ACLU Department L
                           PO Box 794
                       Medford, NY  11763

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