Fostering Capacity, Equality, and Responsibility (and Single-Sex Education): In Honor of Linda McClain

It gives me great pleasure to have the honor of celebrating Linda McClain as she is appointed the Rivkin Radler Distinguished Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School. No one has done more than Linda to elucidate the material preconditions for self-government. Or, to put it another way, no one has done more to demonstrate how the concerns traditionally associated with women—concerns for educating children, caring for dependents, balancing work and family, managing reproduction—are crucial to the projects of democracy and human flourishing. She has persistently, carefully, and powerfully excavated the resources within liberalism toward these ends. As a result, she has breathed new life and meaning into the key ideas of rights, autonomy, fairness, justice, and, as I will explore here today: equality, capability, and responsibility. Linda’s forthcoming book, Education for Citizenship, develops these topics. The book will bring these ideas to the broader audience they deserve. And no one articulates these themes better than Linda.