Is feminist law reform flawed? : abstentionists & sceptics

Susan Armstrong

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    Feminists have generally been ambivalent about whether law could or should be used as a tool for feminist action and strategy. Early feminist legal scholarship implicated law as central to a patriarchal political structure which reinforced women's subordination. Politically committed to changing this, feminists sought to use law to address the unequal conditions under which many women live, but lamented the failure of feminist law reforms to achieve lasting or meaningful change. Some questioned whether law or legal method could ever respond to gendered claims and concluded that law was largely impervious to feminist perspectives. This paper revisits debates within legal feminism about the merits of engaging with law reform.
    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages21
    JournalAustralian Feminist Law Journal
    Publication statusPublished - 2004

    Keywords

    • feminism
    • law reform
    • feminist jurisprudence
    • women's rights
    • women
    • legal status, laws, etc.

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