Gender in legal theory - Essay Example

At a practical level, some jurists hope to improve society by studying what the law is, what it ought to be, and how it actually operates. They seek a deeper understanding behind laws seemingly unpredictable and uncertain nature. Feminist jurisprudence then is that part of jurisprudence pertaining to women. To understand the term more, Weiss and Young (2006) discussed about The Rise of Feminist Jurisprudence. They said: “The liberal feminism inherited by the womens liberation movement of the 1960s was based on emancipatory theory and sought to dismantle the positive legal barriers that had denied women equal opportunity with men.

The theory behind those goals was that the rights of individuals as traditionally understood in a liberal society should transcend gender differences (McElroy, 1991). This brand of legal feminism was in many ways exemplified by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now associate justice of the Supreme Court, who said in a 1988 speech, "Generalizations about the way women or men are . . . cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals." (Rosen, 1993). As general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Unions Womens Rights Project in the 1970s, Ginsburg challenged laws that gave health benefits to wives of servicemen but not to husbands of servicewomen and prohibited women from engaging in certain types of business (such as running a bar) without a male co-owner.

Feminists were also involved in efforts to overturn legal restrictions on contraception and abortion.” The authors also said: “The illiberal feminist legal theory (also known as "radical feminism"), which emerged during the 1980s, urges women to renounce traditional notions of rights and justice, now viewed as perpetuating male dominance. Some of the new feminists charge that the reforms achieved by "equality feminists" have dismantled protections beneficial to women