The Law To Know

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Critical and social movements

Feminist Legal Theory

Law has often been written from a male standpoint: ask how it treats women, and change it.

1970s to today · United States, United Kingdom and worldwide. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

Read this first. This is a first map of a large subject. Each school is a family of views, and its thinkers often disagree with one another, so every summary simplifies. We describe each school in terms its own followers would accept and give the strongest criticism beside it. Read the original works before you cite anyone, and check your own course's reading list. This is general information, not legal advice.

What is law?

Law is a human institution shaped by the people who made it. Feminist theories ask who law serves and how it treats sex and gender, from formal equality (treat people alike) to difference, to dominance (MacKinnon) and to relational approaches.

Law and morality

Law should end subordination and promote real equality.

Where does its authority come from?

Moral critique of existing law and reform.

How should judges decide?

Ask 'the woman question': how does this rule affect women and gender relations?

The question it asks

Does an apparently neutral rule treat women fairly?

Main criticism

There is disagreement inside the field over sameness and difference and over generalising about 'women', and critics from other schools doubt the generalisations.

Legacy today

Law on sex discrimination, sexual harassment and domestic violence, and the study of unpaid care work.

Key thinkers

Catharine MacKinnon, Robin West, Martha Fineman, Frances Olsen, Kimberlé Crenshaw.

Key works

  • MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989)
  • West, Caring for Justice (1997)
  • Fineman, The Autonomy Myth (2004)

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Read further

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: feminist perspectives on law. For the exact arguments, go to the original works above.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s guide to schools of legal thought is an educational overview. It is not legal advice. Report a mistake.