Women and the Equal Protection Clause

The stance of the law in this respect, as with other social trends, has generally reflected the current attitudes that dominate the society it governs. Yet, as late as 1969, we still had judges on the appellate level taking judicial notice of the female\u27s lesser capacity for sexual arousal, the sexual behavior of the vast majority of women in a civilized society, and the normal behavior of a married woman in the presence of her husband in their bedroom;\u27 all in a puritanically paternalistic fashion. This, and other absurd judicial pronouncements may have been what prompted one controversial attorney to observe that all ostriches do not have feathers and a beak