Feminist Legal Theory

Introduction

To call women the weaker sex is a libel. It is man’s injustice to women. If by strength is a man’s strength brute; then indeed is a woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is man’s power, as she has better intuition. Is she not more self sacrificing? Has she not greater endurance? Has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If non violence is the law of our being, the future is with women. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than women?’’ Mahatma Gandhi- Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 1960

Feminist legal theory

Women have been the core of discussions on the gender topic and still are, the question is if they will always be, when the ‘gender’ topic is discussed. This has happened and is happening due to the apprehension of the much imperative role that women are playing in society. The need to have women on a level playing ground as their male counterparts in the shaping of society has not been an easier task for the feminist theorists and still isn’t. Though, the little achievement seen today can’t just be swept under the carpet and be ignored to be.

Feminist theorists have over the years championed for women’s rights through such paradigms as-sex/gender equality, public/private sphere of the women, and equality/difference between men and women. Still today with a slight vary from the patriarchal world, they can be said to be only ‘consciousness-raising’. The real triumph, according to feminists is yet to be achieved.

The statements made by Mahatma Gandhi are yet to be realised fully while others have been realised in society. Violence against women in marital marriage has been dealt with, this has happened through the realisation that ‘marital rape’ actually exists, whoever who perpetuates it is criminally responsible for his deeds. This is the case in most common law jurisdictions. Previously before this apprehension, marriage was perceived to be a safe haven where rape couldn’t exist. The justification behind this was that, a woman gave her general consent to sexual intercourse with her husband when she married him. This wasn’t the case however as women could be forced to have intercourse even when it was against their wish and violated their rights. Gandhi speaks of violence in general; marital rape is one o f the many forms in which violence is perpetuated to women in society. Marital rape is the least expected form of violence expected to pop up in violence against women dialogue. It’s my best guess that, if the unspoken /least spoken has been dealt with, then, the most common and identifiable forms of violence against women have been dealt with.

Society has realised the imperative role women play in society and this has come with many reforms. Women empowerment programmes are a common attribute in society today to be ignored not to exist even by the least keen people on detail. Equality of the sexes has been the pivotal discussion in making sure women are not discriminated because of their sex. In Kenya there are the women empowerment programmes in the various forms- uwezo and women enterprise fund among other non-governmental initiatives-they come in.

Time has come that, women should stop arguing of their sameness with men to access all that men can by virtue of their sex. This can be used as a powerful tool in dehumanising women. There exists the inability to house actual differences between men and women, such as women’s reproductive capacity. When women are constantly being compared to men in order to

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