Feminist jurisprudence is the study of how laws are made and how they operate from the standpoint of women and their lives. It aims to examine and correct more traditional legal ideas and practises, with a particular focus on how laws have been written to ignore women’s experiences and demands.

Patriarchy (the system of linked connections and institutions that oppress women) is said to pervade the legal system and all of its workings, making it an acceptable state of things, according to feminist jurisprudence. As a result, feminist jurisprudence, as defined by philosopher Patricia Smith, is not politically neutral, but rather a normative approach. Rather than analysing core legal categories and notions as givens, feminist jurisprudence, she claims, questions them. It considers what conventional categories, classifications, and conceptions entail, and rejects them if they suggest women’s subordination. In this sense, feminist jurisprudence is normative and claims that traditional jurisprudence and law are implicitly normative as well.

Feminist jurisprudence is defined by a variety of traits, but the two most important are: Since the legal tradition is based on liberalism and its beliefs, Feminist jurisprudence tends to respond to liberalism in some way. Second, the objective is to get law and its practitioners to recognise that the law as it is presently does not acknowledge or respond to the neoliberal agenda.

Feminist jurisprudence is not consistent, despite feminists’ shared commitment to equality between men and women. Traditional or liberal feminism believes that women are equally as rational as men and, as a result, should be given the same freedom to make their own decisions. Cultural feminism emphasises and embraces the distinctions that exist between men and women. This school of thought claims that women value connections, contexts, and the reconciliation of competing interpersonal views, whereas males value abstract concepts of rights and logic, according to Carol Gilligan’s study.

The radical or dominant feminism focuses on inequality. Similar to liberals, radicals assert that men as a class have dominated women as a class, creating gender inequality. They urged us to abandon traditional approaches that have masculinity as their reference point.

Feminist authors criticise legal positivists like Austin, Hart, and Kelson for their intrinsic methodological framework. Diverse scholarly approaches, such as international law theory of human rights, postcolonial theory, critical legal studies, critical racial theory, queer theory, and disability studies, are all used in contemporary feminist philosophy of law.

Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing and defending equal rights and opportunities for Indian women. Feminism can also be understood by way of the changes and legislations brought in with passage of time. In the form of gender equality reform laws and family law, there has been some progress. The immoral traffic prevention legislation of 1956, the dowry prohibition act of 1961, the commission of Sati prevention act of 1987, the protection of women from domestic violence act of 2005 and the Muslim women protection of rights on marriage bill 2019, all resulted from increased awareness about gender equality. A significant number of implementations can be added to this list. It signifies the impact of feminist jurisprudence on our legal system.

In the end, a feminist approach may be defined as one that strives to defend, preserve, and strengthen women’s roles in society through enhancing our democratic liberal ideals. There is a need for the public to join forces in order to empower women. Women’s mindsets should be empowered, and our people’s mindsets should shift in order to implement reforms that make the legal system more equitable.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge