European University Institute Library

Feminist Approaches to Law, Theoretical and Historical Insights, edited by Dragica Vujadinović, Antonio Álvarez del Cuvillo, Susanne Strand

eng

0

non fiction

Feminist Approaches to Law

electronic resource

dictionaries

1352092386

edited by Dragica Vujadinović, Antonio Álvarez del Cuvillo, Susanne Strand

Gender Perspectives in Law,, 1, 2731-8354Springer eBooks.

Theoretical and Historical Insights

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.--, Provided by publisher

1 Feminist Reconsideration of Political Theories -- 2 The Concept of Gender in Law -- 3 Critical Race Feminism: A Different Approach to Feminist Theory -- 4 Queer Legal Theory -- 5 Challenging Patriarchalism in the Family. Law Reform and Female Protest in 19th and 20th Century Europe -- 6 Adultery as a Crime in the Western World and Beyond: From a Man's Property to (In)Fidelity, From Discrimination to Decriminalization