From the Second Sex to the Joint Venture
Kay is a renowned family law scholar and the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the Boalt Hall faculty in 1960 after clerking for California Supreme Court Justice Roger Traynor. From 1992 to 2000, she served as dean of the law school. Two years after joining the Boalt Hall faculty, Kay received the Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award. She was also the recipient of the Society of American Law Teachers Teaching Award, the 1990 American Bar Foundation Research Award, and the 1992 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers Achievement Award from the American Bar Association. In 1998, the National Law Journal named Kay one of the 50 most influential female lawyers in the country and one of the eight most influential attorneys in Northern California. Professor Kay has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Lewis & Clark College, and Hamline University. She served on the faculty of the Salzburg Seminar on American Law in 1987. Professor Kay is a past or present member of 12 different boards, including the Russell Sage Foundation, Equal Rights Advocates, Inc., Order of the Coif, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In her lecture, Kay will address American women's struggles for political independence and socio-economic equality from the viewpoint of family law reform, and the emerging law of employment discrimination. According to Kay, much of the intellectual challenge for those concerned about women's rights will necessarily focus on securing, interpreting, and building on the advances won during the twentieth century. Kay received her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and her Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School.
