Dissenting Opinions

"Dissenting Opinions" summarizes the "state of the art" of feminist analyses of the law in its dealings with women. The book canvasses a broad range of issues, including legal equality, feminist criminology, social control theory, housing policy, family law, social security and custody law. Since the 1970s, feminist scholarship has brought new perspectives to the analysis of areas of study previously thought to be somehow "gender-neutral". Nowhere has this development yielded richer findings than in the area of legal doctrine, as legal practices come under scrutiny and the law faces new theoretical challenges. This collection of essays - by lawyers, sociologists and historians - explores the centrality of legal regulation to the lives of women, and exposes the many ways in which legal rules, practices, doctrines and policies have a fundamental impact on all women. It emphasizes the fact that, despite law reform in the past two decades, the challenge remains to develop new insights and strategies for women's relations with the law. This book is intended for students and researchers in gender studies, law, and sociology.