This book raises awareness about gender perspective in political and legal theories and historical analysis. The impacts of feminist political and legal theories, as well as critical legal studies, have been embedded in all the papers in different ways and degrees. Differences among feminist political and legal ideas are visible in the different approaches. The ongoing issue of defining gender, for example, is a recurring theme in the texts. Some papers question the binary basis of the gender issue and the notion of gender as such, while others start from the binary dichotomy and attempt to expand the consideration towards a multi-dimensional understanding of gender identities. The main focus is on a feminist reconsideration of all relevant fields of legal knowledge. The primary aim is to demystify the seemingly neutral character of legal norms and legal knowledge and highlight the power relations at different layers, beginning with male and female legal subjects of Western heredity (in terms of culture, ethnicity, and race), then moving on to different needs and power relations among female persons of different races and classes, and finally addressing differentiating gender relations and identities beyond the framework of the women-men binary codification, i.e., also taking into consideration the multiple options of intersex, transgender, queering, etc.
Taking seriously the issue of the “maleness” of political and legal theories is indeed a challenging and relevant endeavor for legal scholars. The male bias is present not only throughout history but also in the present, given that our “universal” categories of political and legal thought are still overburdened by unequal power relations. It is also important to open our minds and knowledge production for a gender-sensitive and gender-competent intersectional approach, which would also include various queer-, race- and class-based considerations. These tasks should be of interest not only to critical legal scholars but also all those belonging to mainstream legal and political thought.
Author(s): Dragica Vujadinović, Antonio Álvarez del Cuvillo, Susanne Strand
Series: Gender Perspectives in Law, 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 163
City: Cham
Preface
Contents
About the Editors
Feminist Reconsideration of Political Theories
1 Introduction
2 Continuity of the Gender-Blind Approach Within Political Thought
2.1 Comparative Analysis of Aristotle and Rawls
2.1.1 Aristotle
2.1.2 Rawls
2.2 Maleness and/or Misogyny Within ``Grand´´ Theories
3 Potentials for Discontinuity: Rawls Reconsidered Beyond ``Maleness´´
4 Gender Equality Perspective in Political Thought
5 Gender Competent Political Concepts and Conceptions
6 Concluding Remarks: Forward-Looking and Moving Beyond
References
The Concept of Gender in Law
1 Introduction
2 Gender: The Transdisciplinary Background
3 Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Gender in Feminist Theories
4 Gender and Law
5 Gender in the Search for Equality: A Gender-Based Classification of Feminism and the Woman Question
5.1 Are Women Equal to Men? Gender Reform and Law (Liberal Feminism, Socialist Feminism)
5.2 Are Women Different from Men? Gender Resistance (Standpoint Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism, Cultural Feminis...
5.3 Are Women Different from Each Other? Gender Rebellion (Post-modern Movements, Third Wave Feminism)
5.4 Are We All Different? Gender Revolution
6 The Persisting Implicit Binary
7 Moving Forward
8 Conclusion
References
Literature
Other Sources
Critical Race Feminism: A Different Approach to Feminist Theory
1 An Introduction to Critical Race Feminism
1.1 Critical Legal Studies
1.2 Critical Race Theory
1.3 Critical Race Feminism
2 Detailed Analysis of Critical Race Feminism
2.1 Anti-essentialism
2.2 Intersectionality
2.3 Narrative Methodology
2.4 Praxis
3 COVID-19 in the United States: A Case Study
4 Promoting Global Human Rights Through CRF
5 Conclusion: Attacks on Critical Race Theory
References
Queer Legal Theory
1 Introduction to an Undefinable Concept
2 The First Step Towards Queer Legal Theory: From American Legal Realism to Critical Legal Studies
3 Outsider Jurisprudence: Feminist, Race and Queer Legal Theory
4 The Emergence of Queer Theory
5 Queer Legal Theory
5.1 Liberal Stream of Queer Legal Theory: Autonomy and Human Dignity
5.2 Critical Stream of Queer Legal Theory
6 Conclusion: Is There a Definition?
6.1 Queer Theory
6.2 Pluralism of Queer Legal Theory
References
Challenging Patriarchism in the Family: Law Reform and Female Protest in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe
1 Introduction
2 The Family and the State
3 First Feminist Challenges to Women´s Unequal Legal Status in Family Law
3.1 Personal Matrimonial Law
3.2 Maternal Custody and Paternity Action
3.3 Married Women´s Property Rights
3.4 Divorce Law
3.5 Family Law Reform as the Beginning of Women´s Movements
3.6 Exceptions? Women Fighting in Court
3.7 Strategies to Fight the Law
4 Constitution, Women´s Equal Rights and Family Law Reform
4.1 Russia
4.2 Scandinavia
4.3 New Democracies and Constitutional Rights for Women
4.4 Code Napoleon Based Countries
4.5 Legal Exception: Common Law
5 Epilogue: Family Law Reform in Totalitarianism and Democracies
References
Sources
Secondary Literature
Adultery as a Crime in the Western World and Beyond: From a Man´s Property to (In)Fidelity, from Discrimination to Decriminali...
1 Introduction
2 Antiquity (cca. 3000 BC-500 CE)
3 The Middle Ages (cca. 500-1500 CE)
4 The Modern Age (cca. 1500-1945)
5 Contemporary Legal Systems
6 Conclusion
References
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
