'The historical importance of law to feminism and the women's movement Essay

The historical importance of justice to feminism and the womens battlefront cannot be under-estimated. Discuss - Essay ExampleThey began to criticize a system which had relegated them to the household and to the roles of wife and mother, and to march in support of laws and other measures which would allow them to extend their role, and to prove that they were at least the equals of men. At the aforesaid(prenominal) time, they criticized the ideologies which had outlined this restricted role for them, and effeminate academics, in law but also in sociology, history, psychological science and other areas, attempted a fundamental revision of existing frameworks which were now held to be inadequate. However, the relationship amid feminism and the law is more than complex than a consistent attack of the one by the other. rough of the most important breakthroughs for the womens movement have involved the establishment of legal precedents to ensure that happen is enforceable by law. Nevertheless, it is also true to say that the feminist revaluation of law has become more comprehensive over time, and what might be called postmodern1 feminism has refuted the legitimacy of the basic determine which law claims to represent and defend. There is a commonplace consensus, outlined by Naffine2 and Cain3, among others, that the historical links among law, feminism and the womens movement can be divided into three main phases. In general terms, the first phase was characterised by feminist concerns about the male domination of law and the legal professions, and the ways in which men have operated a legal system designed to uphold the values of their let society and to perpetuate their power. The second phase broadened the attack, with feminists exploring the masculinity and masculine values which informs everything about law, and means that it is inefficient to take account of female values and experience, and does not operate for their benefit. More recently, fem inists have extended this critique further, contending that the key values on which law claims to be based justice and impartiality, for example are compromised by its exclusion of female experience, so that these values become inherently male values. It is worth exploring each of these phases in more detail. In the first phase of feminist legal critique, from the mid-1960s, the vision of the law as a generally rational and fair institution was not much questioned. The law was seen as an institution soon monopolised by men, but prime territory for women to critique and infiltrate, so that the removal of legal constraints on female freedom could take place. Indeed, it was considered by the feminist mainstream that recourse to law would offer an opportunity for gaining effective womens rights. The male monopoly of the legal profession was seen as a key obstruction, and a way to preserve jobs for men, with Sachs and Wilson public debate that men manifest a grudging tolerance rather than a facilitative welcome to women entrants4. Therefore, law was being criticised for not conforming to the own high standards of equality and objectivity it claimed to uphold. Of course, it was not only a matter of personnel. There was also an established male bias in legal thinking, perhaps to be expected in an institution dominated by men, with feminists complaining that it restricted the role of women to the private sphere5. By the end of this first phase, feminists and women