Martha Albertson Fineman is a Robert W. Woodruff Professor. Following graduation from University of Chicago Law School in 1975, she clerked for the Hon. Luther M. Swygert of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Fineman began her teaching career at the University of Wisconsin in 1976. In 1990, she moved to Columbia University where she was the Maurice T. Moore Professor. Before coming to Emory, she was on the Cornell Law School faculty where she held the Dorothea Clarke Professorship, the first endowed chair in feminist jurisprudence in the nation.
A Fellow of the American Association of Arts and Science, Fineman has received numerous awards for her writing and teaching, including the prestigious Harry J. Kalven Jr. Prize for her Law and Society scholarship and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award. She has served on several government study commissions. Fineman’s current scholarly interests are the legal regulation of family and intimacy and the legal implications of universal dependency and vulnerability. She serves as the founding director of the Feminism and Legal Theory (FLT) Project, which was inaugurated in 1984.
More recently, Fineman has expanded the boundaries of feminist jurisprudence, leading the way towards a new legal framework based on Vulnerability Theory, developing the Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative (VHC) in 2008. Vulnerability theory provides a template with which to refocus critical attention, raising new questions and challenging established assumptions about individual and state responsibility and the role of law, as well as allowing us to address social relationships of “inevitable inequality.” In this regard, Vulnerability Theory goes beyond traditional ways of thinking about identity and questions the normative claim for equality, be it formal or substantive in nature, to suggest that we interrogate what may be just and appropriate mechanisms to structure the terms and practices of inequality. The VHC hosts visiting scholars from around the world and organizes several academic workshops each year that allow scholars to engage with the concepts of “vulnerability” and “resilience” and the idea of a “responsive state.” There are satellite programs in Leeds (UK) and Lund (Sweden).
The first book Fineman published exploring the implications of Vulnerability Theory was Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (with A. Grear, Ashgate 2013). Her recent Vulnerability Theory publications include: Vulnerability Theory and the Trinity Lectures (Bristol 2025) and Vulnerability and the Organisation of Academic Labour (with G. Ferris, Routledge 2025), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Fineman’s most acclaimed solely authored books include The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency (The New Press, 2004) and The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family, and other Twentieth Century Tragedies (Routledge, 1995).
She teaches seminars on Vulnerability Theory, as well as family law and feminist jurisprudence. For more information, visit www.law.emory.edu/flt and www.emory.edu/vulnerability.
Research and Publications
Books:
Vulnerability Theory and The Trinity Lectures: Institutionalizing the Individual, Bristol University Press -- Law, Society, Policy Series (2025).
The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency, The New Press (2004). Published in Japan as 作品社 Sakuhinsha Publishing Company (2008).
The Neutered Mother, The Sexual Family, and Other Twentieth Century Tragedies, Routledge Press (1995). Published with updates in Japan as 学陽書房 Gakuyo Shobo Publishing Company (2003).
The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform, University of Chicago Press (1991).
Books - Editor and Contributor:
Vulnerability and the Organization of Academic Labor (with Graham Ferris) Routledge (2025).
Law and Structuring Individual and Institutional Responsibility: Beyond Equality (with Laura Spitz), Routledge (2023).
Vulnerability and the Legal Organization of Work (with J. Fineman), Routledge (2018).
Privatization, Vulnerability, and Social Responsibility: A Comparative Perspective (with U. Andersson and T. Mattsson), Routledge (2017).
Masculinities and Feminisms: Critical Perspectives (with M. Thomson), Ashgate Press (2013).
Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics (with A. Grear) Ashgate Press (2013).
Feminist Perspectives on Transitional Justice: Through a Theoretical, Policy and Practice-Oriented Lens (with E. Zinsstag), Intersentia Press (Series on Transitional Justice 2013).
Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory (a GlassHouse Book - Taylor and Frances) Routledge (2010).
What Is Right for Children? The Competing Paradigms Religion and International Human Rights, (with K. Worthington) Ashgate Press (2009).
Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations, with J. Jackson and A. Romero (Ashgate Press 2009).
Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus (Economic Man), with T. Doherty (Cornell University Press 2005).
Feminism and The Media, Oxford University Press (1997).
Mothers in Law: Feminism and the Legal Regulation of Motherhood, Columbia University Press (1995).
The Public Nature of Private Violence, Routledge Press (1994).
At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory Routledge (1990; Re-issued 2012).
Book Chapters:
"The Importance of Incorporating Feminist Perspectives in Corporate Law;" Chapter 2 in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Corporate Law (with Anne Choike and Cheryl Wade, 2023).
“Reasoning from the Body,” in Jurisprudence of the Body, Palgrave Press: M.A. Thomson, M. Travis Eds. (2020)
“The Limits of Equality: Vulnerability and Inevitable Inequality,” in FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE, Elgar Press: Bowman, C. and West, R. Eds. (2019).
“Injury in the Unresponsive State: Writing the Vulnerable Subject into Neo-Liberal Legal Culture,” in Injury and Injustice: The Cultural Politics of Harm and Redress, Cambridge University Press: A. Bloom, D. Engel, M. McCann eds. (2018).
“Care and Gender” in Negotiating Motherhood in the 21st Century, J. Egras, J. Jenson, and S. Michel, Eds., Columbia University Press (2017).
“Homeschooling: Putting Parental Rights Over Children’s Best Interests” in Handbook of School Choice, R. Fox and N. Buchanan Eds., Wiley Press (2017).
“Emancipation of Women from Fixed Sex Roles” Japan Association of Gender and Law Series on Gender and Law, (Vol. 2, Nihon Kajo Shuppan – Tokyo) written in English and translated into Japanese for a series of books celebrating the 10thanniversary of the Japan Association of Gender and Law.
“Vulnerability and Resilience” in Vulnerability: Reflections on a New Ethical Foundation for Law and Politics, Fineman and Grear, Eds., Ashgate Press (2013).
“Responsibility, Family, and the Limits of Equality: An American Perspective” In Taking Responsibility, Law and the Changing Family, edited by C. Lind, H. Keating, and I. Bridgeman (Ashgate Press 2011).
“Gender, Equality, and the Human Condition” In Gender, Sexualities, and Law, edited by J. Jones, A. Grear and R. Fenton (Routledge/Glasshouse 2011).
“Taking Children’s Interests Seriously” What Is Right for Children: TheCompeting Paradigms of Religion and Human Rights, edited by MA Fineman and K Worthington (Ashgate Press 2009).
“The Sexual Family” in Strange Bedfellows: An Uncomfortable Conversation Between Feminism and Queer Theories, edited by MA Fineman, J. Jackson and A. Romero (Ashgate Press 2009).
“Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship” in Social Citizenship and Gender, edited by Joanna Grossman and Linda McClain (Cambridge University Press 2009).
“Equality: Still Illusive after All These Years” in Social Citizenship and Gender, edited by Joanna Grossman and Linda McClain (Cambridge University Press 2009).
“Dependency” In The Chicago Companion to the Child, edited by Richard A. Shweder (University of Chicago Press 2008).
“Intimacy” In The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, vol. 2, edited by David Tanenhaus, (Macmillan/Gale 2008).
“Poverty, Gender, and the Family” In Conceptual Challenges in Poverty and Inequality, edited by David Grusky and Ravi Kanbur (Stanford University Press 2005).
“The Meaning of Marriage” In Marriage Proposals: Questioning a Legal Status, edited by Anita Bernstein (New York University Press 2005).
“What Place for Family Privacy?” In Women and the United States Constitution, edited by Sibyl Schwarzenbach (Columbia University Press 2003).
“Dependencies” In Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe, edited by Nancy J. Hirschmann and Ulrike Liebert (Rutgers University Press 2001).
“Law of the Father” In Mother Troubles, edited by J. Hanigsberg and S. Ruddick (1999).
“Contract, Marriage and Background Rules” In Analyzing Law: New Essays in Legal Theory, edited by Brian Bix (1998).
“Justice in Law and Marriage” In Law and Society Scholarship, vol. I, edited by Bryant Garth and Austin Sarat (1997).
“The End of Child Support As We Know It” In New Perspectives on Child Support, edited by Margo Melli and Thomas Oldham (1997).
“Divorce and Child Custody" In Law, Mental Status and Mental Health Services, edited by Bruce Sales and Dan Shuman (1995).
"The Concept of the Natural Family and the Limits of American Family Law" In International Review of Comparative Public Policy, vol. 4, edited by Barbara Stark (1992).
"The Neutered Mother" In Symbolism, Language and Politics, edited by Richard Merelman (1992).
"The Feminist as Legal Reformer” In Lawyering and Its Limits, edited by Christine Harrington and Maureen Cain (1991).
"The Role of the Guardian Ad Litem in the Family Court System" In Child Advocacy, edited by J. Westman (1990).
"The Politics of Child Custody in the United States" In The Politics of Child Custody Decision Making, edited by Carol Smart and Selma Sevenhuijsen, 1989 (a version of Child Advocacy and the Transformation of Custody Decision Making).
Scholarly Papers:
“The Significance of Understanding Vulnerability: Ensuring Individual and Collective Well-Being,” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique (2023).
“Rights, Resilience, and Responsibility,” 71 Emory Law Journal 1435 (2022).
“Populations, Pandemics, and Politics,”21 International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 3 (2021).
The Social Pharmacy, (Sweden: The Art Museum at Skovde, 2022). Exhibition catalog.
“Reasoning From the Body: Universal Vulnerability and Social Justice,” 22-18 Emory Legal Studies Research Paper(2022)
“Universality, Vulnerability, and Collective Responsibility” for Les ateliers de l’éthique/The Ethics Forum. Special Issue: “After Covid”: ethical, political, economic and social issues in a post-pandemic world, Vol 16, No. 1. Winter 2021 (peer reviewed).
“Introduction to the Special Issue” Vulnerability and the Organisation of Academic Labour, The Law Teacher, Volume 55, Issue 1 (2021).
“Vulnerability in Law and Bioethics,” 30 Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 52 (2020).
“Beyond Equality and Discrimination,” 73 SMU Law Review Forum 51 (2020).
“Vulnerability and Social Justice,” 53 Valparaiso Law Review 341 (2019).
“Vulnerability and Inevitable Inequality,” Oslo Law Review (peer reviewed, 2017).
“Homeschooling the Vulnerable Child” – University of Baltimore Law Review (2016 with George Shepherd)
“Equality and Difference – The Restrained State” 66 Alabama Law Review 609 (2015)
“Vulnerability and LGBT Youth” Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review (2014)
“Vulnerability as a Basis for Justice and Equality in the Nordic Countries -- Afterword: Vulnerability and Resilience” 36 Retfaerd 84 (The Nordic Journal of Law and Justice) 2013
“Feminism, Masculinities and Multiple Identities” 13 University of Nevada – Las Vegas Law Review 101 (Symposium Issue on Masculinities – 2013).
“Elderly” as Vulnerable: Rethinking the Nature of Individual and Societal Responsibility” 20 The Elder Law Journal 71 (2012).
“Beyond Identities: The Limits of an Anti-discrimination Approach to Equality” 92 Boston University Law Review 1713 (2012).
“The Vulnerable Subject and the Responsive State,” 60 Emory Law Journal – (Symposium Issue on “The New New Deal” -- 2011).
“Motherhood and Entitlement,” 2011 Singapore Journal of Legal Studies (2011).
“States of Being” (a response to C. Huntington “Familial Norms and Normality”), 59 Emory Law Journal 1171 (2010).
“Evolving Images of Gender and Equality: A Feminist Journey,” 43 New England Law Journal 437 (2009).
“Religious Resistance to Family Law Reform in the United States,” 8 Korean Law Journal 47 (2008).
“The Vulnerable Subject,” 20 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 1 (2008).
“The Family in Law and Society,” 7 F-GENS; Frontiers of Gender Studies Journal 45 - Ochanomizu University, Japan (2007).
“Gender and the New Legal Realism,” 2005 University of Wisconsin Law Review 405 (2005).
“The Social Foundations of Law,” 54 Emory Law Journal 201 (2005).
“Feminist Legal Theory,” 13 American Journal of Gender, Social Policy, and Law (2005.)
“Equality Across Legal Cultures: The Role of International Human Rights,” 27 Thomas Jefferson Law Review (2004).
“Progress and Progression in Family Law,” 2004 University of Chicago Legal Forum 1 (2004).
"Domestic Violence, Custody, and Visitation," 36 Family Law Quarterly 211 (Spring 2002).
“Taking Children’s Interests Seriously,” Nomos (New York University Press) (2002).
“Contract and Care” 76 ITT Chicago-Kent Law Review 1403 (2001).
“Why Marriage?” 9 University of Virginia Journal of Law and Social Policy 239 (2001).
“The Family in Civil Society,” 75 ITT Chicago-Kent Law Review 531 (2000).
“Cracking the Foundational Myths,” 8 American Journal and Law and Social Policy 13 (2000).
“What Role for Family Privacy,” George Washington Law Review (1999).
“Dependencies,” Stanford Law and Policy Review, Symposium on Welfare Reform (1998).
"The Nature of Dependencies and Welfare Reform," 36 Santa Clara University Law Review (1996).
"Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric" University of Virginia Law Review (1995).
“Feminist Theory and Law,” 18 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 349 (1995).
“A Legal (and Otherwise) Realist Response to “Sex as Contract” 4 Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 128 (1994).
"Our Sacred Institution: The Ideal of the Family in American Law and Society" 2 University of Utah Law Review 387 (1993).
"Opening the Closed System" 10 Women's Review of Books 27 (Feb. 1993).
"Legal Stories, Change, and Incentives--Reinforcing the Law of the Father" 37 New York Law School Law Review 227 (1992).
"Law of the Father: Sexuality and Incentives" NIH Conference Proceedings (1992).
"The Neutered Mother" 46 University of Miami Law Review 653 (1992).
“The Concept of the Natural Family and the Limits of American Family Law” 4 International Review of Comparative Public Policy 15 (1992).
"Women in Law, The Difference it Makes" 2 Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 1 (1992).
"Who Pays for Free Speech?" 9 Women's Review of Books 17 (Feb. 1992).
"Intimacy Outside of The Natural Family: The Limits of Privacy" 23 University of Connecticut Law Review 955 (1991).
"Images of Mothers in Poverty Discourse" 2 Duke Law Review 274 (1991).
"Challenging Law, Establishing Differences: The Future of Feminist Legal Scholarship." 42 Florida Law Review 25 (1990).
"Child Advocacy and the Transformation of Custody Decision Making" 22 University of California-Davis Law Review829 (1989).
"Societal Factors Affecting the Creation of Legal Rules for Distribution of Property at Divorce" 23 Family Law Quarterly279 (1989).
"The Politics of Law Reform: Law as an Extension of Ideology" 12 American Psychological Association; Division of Child, Youth and Family Services Newsletter 4 (1989).
"Custody Determinations at Divorce: The Limits of Social Science Research and the Fallacy of the Liberal Ideology of Equality" 3 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 88 (1989).
"Dominant Discourse Professional Language and Legal Change" 101 Harvard Law Review 727 (1988). Portions of this article are published in Dispute Resolution and Lawyers, Murray, Rau and Sherman, ed., (1988).
"Introduction to the Papers: The Origins and Purpose of the Feminism and Legal Theory Conference" 3.5 Wisconsin Women's Law Journal 1 (1987).
"The Use of Social Science Data in Legal Policy Making: Child Custody at Divorce" With Anne Opie. 1987 Wisconsin Law Review 107 (1987).
"Implementing Equality: Ideology, Contradiction and Social Change" 1981 Wisconsin Law Review 789 (1983)
"Law and Changing Patterns of Behavior: Sanctions on Non-Marital Cohabitation" Wisconsin Law Review 275 (1981).
"Beginnings and Endings: The Effect of the Law on Forms and Consequences of Family Relations" Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the Family Study Center, Nickols, S.Y., & Engelbrecht, J.O. (Eds.). (1980).
Substantive Book Reviews:
“Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism,” 25th Anniversary Issue of Social & Legal Studies Vol. 26(6) (2017).
"The Hermeneutics of Reason: A Commentary on Sex and Reason, 25 University of Connecticut Law Review 503 (1993).
"Justice, Gender and the Family" Ethics (1991).
"Unmythological Procedure” 63 University of Southern California Law Review 141 (1989).
"Neither Silent, Nor Revolutionary." Law and Society Review (1989).
"Illusive Equality: Review of The Divorce Revolution, The Unexpected Social and Economic Consequences for Women and Children in America” American Bar Foundation Research Journal 781 (1986).
"Contexts and Comparisons" 55 University of Chicago Law Review 1431 (1988).
Ongoing Projects:
Feminism and Legal Theory Project:
Begun in 1984, the Project holds workshops and “uncomfortable conversations” and hosts visiting scholars from around the world.
The Project (along with the Vulnerability and Human Condition Initiative) has produced 19 books thus far, including At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory, the first published anthology of feminist legal theory and Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Project.
Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative:
This program was begun in 2008 and hosts national and international workshops and visitors. Its purpose is to provide a forum for scholars interested in engaging the concepts of “vulnerability” and “resilience” and the articulation of a universal approach to state and collective responsibility that presents a compelling alternative to both a rights-based and social contract paradigm.
Podcast: The Voices in Vulnerability podcast features scholars shaping Vulnerability Theory in the legal world and beyond. Interviewees discuss their research, influences, inspiration, and the impact of their work. The podcast inspires a diverse audience of researchers, students, and established academics. They have conducted 51 interviews of scholars from 6 continents including North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia.
Fortieth Anniversary: In April 2024, Emory celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Feminism and Legal Theory Project with a day of panels followed by a celebratory event and archive dedication signing in MacMillan Law Library. The Feminism and Legal Theory Project Archive documents the development of feminist legal thought in the United States and abroad from 1984 onward. It includes video, audio, and workbooks from FLT and VHC workshops, visiting scholar talks, and more.
Archive: The FLT Archive contains the rich history of the FLT’s evolution, tracing the development of feminist legal thought and mapping trends in socio-legal thought from 1984. The archive contains published FLT anthologies, materials from all FLT workshops and conferences, as well as digitized recordings of one-off presentations by leading scholars. Archive materials capture the work and discussions of trail-blazing scholars from their early days as budding academics and are a unique resource to socio-legal scholars.
Global influence: Vulnerability Theory has a global reach, spanning continents and cultures beyond North America. Hubs in South America, Africa, and Europe have institutionalized the theory through judicial education, university courses, funded research, collaborative workshops, and applying theory to policy in the legislative and international arenas. International scholars continue to use the theory to expand the possibilities of how a humane, responsive state can provide life-affirming legal structure.