Gender-based affirmative action is reviewed under intermediate scrutiny and the state's goal of compensating for past societal discrimination against women as a class is an important state interest. And gender is substantially related to the interest of compensating women for past economic discrimination.
Kahn: The tax exemption for all widows (but not for widowers) is justified because it is substantially related to the state's goal of reducing "the disparity between the economic capabilities of a man and a woman." (p. 826) The state's use of gender is not based upon stereotypes about gender, but about actual historical differences about the economic situation of women as a class versus that of men as a class.
Califano: Same. The gender-based social security formula was not based upon "archaic and overbroad" stereotypes about women, but rather upon "the disparity in economic condition between men and women caused by a long history of discrimination against women." (p. 829)
Orr: Nope. Alabama's law imposing alimony obligations on divorcing husbands but not wives was based on the stereotype of the male provider and the female in need of support. Its result was "perverse" because it gives "an advantage only to the financially secure wife whose husband is in need." (p. 830)
Hogan: Nope. Single-sex nursing school for women only "tends to perpetuate the stereotyped view of nursing as an exclusively women's job." (p. 833) Thus, no important interest related to gender.
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