Legal Feminism

Question 0

Challenges to Liberal Feminism

Answer 0

Legal commitment to equality may not address actual problems, may ask women to achieve success by conforming to male norms, doesn’t look at impact of law, rather its formal wording.

Question 1

Liberal Feminism

Answer 1

Belief in a historical disadvantage for women due to essentialist views on women (they should sew/cook/stay at home), foundational assumption - women are as able as men to participate in public life, practical response - push for formal equality, women want equal opportunities and no discrimination.

Question 2

Cultural/difference Feminism

Answer 2

Foundational assumption - women are different from men and this should be reflected in the law, Carol Gilligan found that women and men focus on different things, practical response - law is founded in a masculine frame and needs to accommodate alternative paradigms.

Question 3

Challenges to Cultural/difference Feminism

Answer 3

This approach may reinforce gender stereotypes, it risks maintaining the subjugation of women, it exceptionalises sex over any other attribute such as disability

Question 4

Radical Feminism

Answer 4

Foundational assumption - the legal system dispowers women, men and women are different groups but legal standards are masculine, women are subjugated through sexual abuse. Practical response - law needs to reverse mens power over women

Question 5

Challenges to Radical Feminism

Answer 5

It can be seen to reduce women to simply victims, it can reduce women’s sexuality to a concept defined by male power, areas of focus fail to identify causes of subjugation, it overemphasises women at the cost of other groups facing subjugation

Question 6

Postmodern Feminism

Answer 6

Foundation assumptions - challenges the idea of a basic truth as to what men and women are, emphasises difference amongst women, practical response - different forms of oppression need to be accounted for, laws need to be less generalised and more inclusive.

Question 7

Challenges to Postmodern Feminism

Answer 7

Not about women in particular, so how can it be feminism? Wider challenges about postmodernism.

Question 8

Feminist Legal Methods

Answer 8

“Asking the women question”, how might the substance of law submerge the perspectives of women, helps to decide the precedential value of a case

Question 9

Feminist Legal Reasoning

Answer 9

In practice rules are required but they need to account for the particularities at hand, paradoxes within feminism may cause doubt over ability to reach the right answer.