Law and the quest for gender equality

As law was a means of legitimating the subordination of women and their exclusion from the public sphere for centuries, it cannot be expected to become a source of equality instantaneously without resistance from benchmark men, that is, those who are white, heterosexual, able-bodied and middle class...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thornton, Margaret
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Canberra, ACT, Australia Australian National University Press 2023, [2023]©2023
Series:Global Thinkers Series
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: JSTOR Open Access Books - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Law and the quest for gender equality  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Margaret Thornton 
260 |a Canberra, ACT, Australia  |b Australian National University Press  |c 2023, [2023]©2023 
300 |a xvii, 405 pages 
505 0 |a 1. Edith Haynes challenges the legal profession. -- 2. Feminist jurisprudence: illusion or reality? -- 3. The contradictions of law reform. -- 4. Feminism and the changing state. -- 5. Sexual harassment losing sight of sex discrimination. -- 6. Hypercompetitiveness or a balanced life? -- 7. The flexible cyborg. -- 8. Who cares? The conundrum for gender equality. -- 9. Sex discrimination, courts and corporate power. -- 10. The High Court and judicial activism. -- 11. 'Otherness' on the bench. -- 12. Wondering what to do about legal education. -- 13. Why the gender and colour of law remain the same. -- 14. Universities upside-down. -- 15. The mirage of merit 
505 0 |a Includes bibliographical references 
653 |a Sex discrimination against women / Law and legislation 
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520 |a As law was a means of legitimating the subordination of women and their exclusion from the public sphere for centuries, it cannot be expected to become a source of equality instantaneously without resistance from benchmark men, that is, those who are white, heterosexual, able-bodied and middle class. Equality, furthermore, was attainable only in the public sphere, whereas the private sphere was marked as a site of inequality; a wife, children and servants could never be the equals of the master. Despite ambivalence about the role of law and its contradictions, women and Others nevertheless felt that they had no alternative but to look to law as a means of liberation. This skewed patriarchal heritage has continued to impede the quest for equality by women and Others and is the subtext of this collection of essays. It informs not only gender relations in the private sphere, as illustrated by domestic violence and sexual assault, but also the status of women in the public sphere. Despite the fact that women have entered the paid workforce, including the professions in large numbers, they are still expected to assume responsibility for the preponderance of society's caring. The essays show how maternal and caring roles, which are still largely viewed as belonging to an unregulated private sphere, continue to be invoked to detract from the authority of the feminine in the public sphere. The promise of anti-discrimination legislation in overcoming the heritage of the past is also shown to be somewhat hollow. - Taken from publisher website