Feminism Law Inclusion

The contributions to this collection are written by legal advocates, community activists and legal scholars. The ten essays examine theories of intersectionality to demonstrate how race, class, sexual orientation, gender and identity have been integrated into legal scholarship and activism in an attempt to shape legal policy and practice.

This book offers powerful analyses of the relationship between law and gender and new understandings of the limits of, and opportunities for, legal reform drawn from the experiences of women and from critical perspectives developed within other disciplines.

Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women’s roles, identities, and rights. At the Boundaries of Law is a timely and path-breaking work that provides a series of non-technical, interdisciplinary explorations into the nature and effects of legal regulation on women’s lives. Together the essays examine the fertile – and radically revisionary – links between feminism and legal theory. But At the Boundaries of Law rejects the abstract ‘grand theorizing’ of traditional feminist legal theory, focusing instead on the concrete and material implications of the legal injustices endured by women. These essays emphasise the complex diversity of female experience, collectively arguing for legal theory and practice that both recognises and accommodates the concept of ‘difference’ – in gender, class, race and sexual orientation. At the Boundaries of Law also raises provocative questions about the methodology and future of feminist legal theory itself. In its rich variety of issues and approaches, this volume will command the interest not only of legal theorists, but of those interested in women’s studies, philosophy, politics, sociology and history. It is sure to set the future agenda for scholars, policymakers and anyone concerned with the role of law in society.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Examining eight case studies on the role of law in various arenas, this collection of essays addresses the reconfiguration of the relations between the state, the market, and the family caused by privatization.

Mary Joe Frug charts a course for future feminist thinking about law. She identifies the political and theoretical limitations of earlier strands of legal feminism and demonstrates why postmodernism offers more hope for women in law.

The nineteen essays in this volume celebrate the judicial career of Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dube and consider the unique ways in which her work as a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada enhanced women's legal and social equality in Canada. Written by leading legal scholars, jurists, and social activists, these essays examine Justice L'Heureux-Dube's substantive contributions to areas of the law including family law, taxation, human rights law, immigration law, and criminal law, as well as examining the ways in which her judgments advanced access to justice and the rights of Aboriginal people, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities in Canada. Finally, they look at the influence her decisions have had in jurisdictions beyond Canadian borders. As the papers in this collection demonstrate, Justice L'Heureux-Dube's work--both on the bench and as a public figure--advanced a feminist analysis of law that served to enhance the quality of life for Canadian women. As importantly, they document her approach to judging, which was defined by human compassion and an ability to see and understand the lived reality of people's lives. During her fifteen years on the Supreme Court from 1987 to 2002, Justice L'Heureux-Dube participated in over six hundred "Charter of Rights" decisions, many of which were profoundly significant and often controversial. Anyone interested in the enterprise of judging generally and in the history of the Court and its role in Canadian society during these turbulent times will find this book a most important addition to their library.

Describing and assessing feminist inroads into the state Feminists walk the halls of power. Governance Feminism: An Introduction shows how some feminists and feminist ideas—but by no means all—have entered into state and state-like power in recent years. Being a feminist can qualify you for a job in the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Criminal Court, the local prosecutor’s office, or the child welfare bureaucracy. Feminists have built institutions and participate in governance. The authors argue that governance feminism is institutionally diverse and globally distributed. It emerges from grassroots activism as well as statutes and treaties, as crime control and as immanent bureaucracy. Conflicts among feminists—global North and South; left, center, and right—emerge as struggles over governance. This volume collects examples from the United States, Israel, India, and from transnational human rights law. Governance feminism poses new challenges for feminists: How shall we assess our successes and failures? What responsibility do we shoulder for the outcomes of our work? For the compromises and strange bedfellows we took on along the way? Can feminism foster a critique of its own successes? This volume offers a pathway to critical engagement with these pressing and significant questions.