Session 3: Gender and Law

The third evidence gathering session of the Commission focuses on Gender and the Law:  

• On Friday 27 February 2015
• Session Lead - Professor Nicola Lacey

The Commission will explore three ways in which law has implications for women’s relative lack of power. First, we will examine the assumptions which legal concepts, rules, and practices make about the gender of those subject to law, and the ways in which law, explicitly or implicitly, constructs its subjects as gendered masculine. The question here will be whether the law’s characteristic assertion of gender neutrality in fact disguises gender bias to the detriment of women.  Second, we will focus on the treatment of women in and by law, focusing in particular on the doctrinal and practical arrangements which shape women’s legal, political, and economic position in fields such as criminal law, human rights, property law, and family law. A particular area of interest relates to law’s capacity to respond effectively to violence against women (one of our cross-cutting themes).

Thirdly, and intersecting with the question of women’s political power, we will consider the question of women’s representation within law-making and law-applying bodies. Women’s under-representation in both legislative and judicial bodies (and their uneven representation in different sectors of the legal profession) ostensibly marks a lack of power. There remains important work to be done towards understanding how such under-representation should be addressed; its implications for ideals such as equal justice; and its costs in terms of the legitimacy of legal and political institutions.

At our meeting to address legal issues  on February 27^th, we will organise our discussions around three panels each focusing on one of the key themes, a particular case study, and a cross-cutting theme.  The first panel, addressing law’s assumptions about gender, will have a particular focus on legal constructions of, and responses to, violence against women and girls; sexual violence; and violence by women.  The second panel, addressing law’s position as an agent for change, will have a particular focus on law’s contribution to gender equality/dismantling gender inequality, through both equality legislation and pro-gender effects of other legislation of general application, bearing in mind  the contribution (and limits) of individual rights in this area. The third panel will address women’s representation in law - in the legal profession, the judiciary and the legislature – with a particular focus on attrition from the legal profession and on the work-life balance.

Podcasts on Gender and Law