INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE
CP Cavendish Publishing Limited
London • Sydney
INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE Hilaire Barnett BA, LLM Queen Mary and Westfield College University of London
CP Cavendish Publishing Limited
London • Sydney
First published in Great Britain 1998 by Cavendish Publishing Limited, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) 171 278 8000 Facsimile: +44 (0) 171 278 8080 e-mail:
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© Barnett, H 1998
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Barnett, Hilaire A Introduction to feminist jurisprudence 1. Feminist jurisprudence I. Title 340.1’15’082 ISBN 1 85941 237 8
Printed and bound in Great Britain
In loving memory of my mother
PREFACE Nothing evidences a subject’s maturity so convincingly as the emergence of introductory texts. It may be said that over the past two decades feminist legal theory and jurisprudence 1 has come of age. The literature is now both extensive and impressive, although sometimes inaccessible to many students because it is dispersed amongst international journals. It is the objective of this book to introduce students to the major themes of inquiry and scholarship with which feminist scholars, many of whom are lawyers, are concerned. Feminist jurisprudence has many objects of inquiry, and seeks to answer many difficult, sometimes intractable, questions about law and society. If there is one single, unifying strand of thought amongst feminist legal scholars, it may be interpreted as the unmasking of the many inequalities based on gender, deriving from nature and culture and encapsulated in the law. Equally important are the practical implications of this area of study – nothing less than the search for equality for women under the law. The project is thus ambitious and all embracing, encompassing the unmasking of gender-based inequality in the substantive law, and the unravelling of the traditional exclusion of women in legal theory and jurisprudence. Feminist jurisprudence is at one and the same time an academic, legal and political enterprise. While the focus of this book is necessarily legal, insights into the law derive from many other disciplines. Thus anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, politics, psychology and sociology all inform the many discourses of law. That law and legal theory cannot exist in a cultural or political vacuum is a simple truism, but its implications are complex. Feminist jurisprudence is no exception: its sweep is not only multidisciplinary but also universal, although crossing disciplines and geographical boundaries provides its own difficulties and pitfalls for the researcher. Feminist jurisprudence has evolved and continues to evolve at dramatic pace. It is hoped that this work will provide, for those interested in equality and justice, a window on the diversity and richness of feminist legal thought. In Part I of the book, the foundations of feminist jurisprudence are discussed. The evolution of feminist jurisprudence and the methods employed by feminist scholars are discussed, as are the inequalities, both historical and contemporary, from which women have suffered. Chapter 3 introduces the