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FEMINISM
 Introduction
- Feminism developed as a theory in the 1960s and 1970s.
- This is a theory which teaches how law affects women.
- It is associated with the practice of law and how it affects gender and what
social change is made by such practice.
- Feminists have various opinions about law.
- Feminist legal theory is concerned with addressing as to
 How law affects women and contributes towards their oppression.
 How law can be used to improve social position of women.
- In answering the first question legal rules and practices that are
discriminatory must be analyzed on the basis of gender and those which
disadvantage women. For example, prohibiting women from entering a
profession, prohibiting women from vesting.
- Many feminists believe that laws or legal rules which differentiate is often
defended on the ground that they protect women whereas it actually results
in causing disadvantage to women.
- Where legal methodology adopted in legal reasoning is ‘patriach’ many
feminists believe that women approach moral issues much differently from
that of men, they find that women are more sensitive in the discussion of
moral reasoning.
- Further concepts such as ‘precedent’ have allowed male bias in the
interpretation of the law so that the experiences of women are totally
excluded from the legal interpretation.
- Law is patriarchal means, not that women have been ignored by law but that
law’s recognition of women is taken from a male eye rather than women’s
experience.
- In answering the second question it is observed that law should be a tool of
social change.
- In order to do this more research should be done encompassing women of all
walks of life.
- This approach has already made an impact in the Amendments made to the
Penal Code in 1995 where sexual harassment and marital rape has been
recognized as offences.
- In general feminist legal theories can be categorized into main two types.
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 Traditional Liberal Feminism

- Earlier in the 1960s and 1970s it was natural to feminists that liberalism should
be the appropriate weapon with which to fight for improvements in the position
of women.
- They believed that equality for women could be achieved from the existing
framework of the law.
- Liberal feminists argue for reformation of the rules allocating benefits and
burdens.
- However, later on many feminists believed that Liberal thinking was no longer
adequate to meet their needs.
- Therefore Liberalism was replaced by Radical feminism.

 Radical Feminism
- They believe that women’s oppression in a patriarchal system is a true
expression of male domination and control over women which leads to all social,
political and economic limitations.
- The desire for supremacy for men and his psychological pleasure of power and
the identification by man of the female sexuality and reproductive capacity have
been analyzed by the radical feminists as the motivating force to establish
patriarchy.
- The radical feminist view is that laws governing reproduction, sexual assault,
pornography are expressions of patriarchal control over the female and they
believe that man uses violence against women to reinforce his control or
supremacy.

 The Difference between Liberal Feminism and Radical Feminism

 The starting point for Liberalism is the individuality of each human being. Since
each person is separate, each person is independent from each other everyone
is entitled to freedom from interference by others. Likewise women should be
treated by the government in a way that it respects her equality and freedom.
Thus Liberal feminists have tended to pay attention to the similarities between
men and women. But Radical feminists point to the weakness of this line of
attack as it for them it only holds good in cases where the women are the same
as men. But men and women are not similarly situated. Thus while not rejecting
the ‘similarity’ argument when it is appropriate to do so, Radical feminists focus
attention on the differences between men and women. And they recognize that
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there no justification that the differences between men and women to be

treated as a reason for women to be disadvantaged.
 Liberalism rests on rights and the failure by society to accord women the rights
to which they are entitled. But for radical feminists what matters is not the rights
but the fact of domination of women by men.
 Liberalism accepts the reasoning processes of the law. Radical feminists reject
this approach since the reasoning structure of law is framed on the basis of life
experiences typical to empowered white males. Thus women’s definitions have
been excluded and marginalized.
 By Liberalism objectivity is respected. It looks at things from the outside and
from what it observes, draws conclusions. Radical feminism embraces
subjectivity and it looks at matters from the inside. The language of objectivity
can silence the voices of those who did not participate in the creation of law.
 Liberal feminists have focused on public issues such as discrimination against
woman over pregnancy for example, whether pregnancy should be a reason for
dismissal. Radical feminists while not discounting the importance of public
issues, have looked more towards issues that affect women’s private lives such
as protection against harassment, battery and rape within marriage. Thus Radical
feminists paid particular attention to the effect of patriarchy on women’s private
lives.