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Title: Justice and Gender: Sex Discrimination & the Law by Deborah L. Rhode ISBN: 0-674-49101-7 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.50

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Summary: A thorough overview of feminist jurisprudence.

Comment: Deborah Rhode provides a historical overview of social gender inequalities that have manifested in the law. She assesses various feminist responses to these inequalities and argues that the establishment of a cohesive feminist philosophy of law, or feminist jurisprudence, will be the most direct, effective way to enacting legal reform addressing them. Her presentation begins with a brief explication of the historical framework prior to the contemporary women's rights movement. Rhode discusses domestic expectations of and restricted opportunities for women prior to the mid-nineteenth century and illustrates how early feminist developments, such as the writing of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and the suffrage movement, helped loosen these social constraints.

With the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, women gained a degree of political power they never had before. Political power and greater access to the legislature became a means to redressing social gender inequalities in the law. The nascent women's movement of the time played a major role in promoting reform, and since then, has grown tremendously. Unfortunately, despite having general common goals, such as expanded employment and educational opportunities for women, reproductive freedom, nonsexist portrayals of women in the media, and revisions in criminal law and family policy regarding marital support, domestic violence, and rape, the women's movement in its present state is largely fragmented. This state of fragmentation is not conducive to promoting legal reform since each segment of the women's movement conceives reform differently.

Rhode argues that fragmentation results from "false dichotomies," or reductionist, binary notions of gender and issues pertaining to gender inequalities that do not capture the intricacies of such concepts. To build an effective women's movement able to achieve lasting social change, Rhode stresses the need to deconstruct simple, dichotomous thinking and address social problems in their full complexity. She maintains that feminists must establish one feminist jurisprudence based upon the manifest gender disadvantages that result from the current practice of law. A united feminist jurisprudence is essential if social change is the be enacted; fragmentation of the women's movement is a major setback. With one cohesive jurisprudence based on observable, undeniable gender inequalities, not multiple philosophies of law with diverse speculations regarding essential similarities and differences between and within gender groups, the women's movement would be in a stronger position to advocate legal reform.

Justice and Gender represents a broad historical synopsis of women's relation to the law. As a reference book for a general overview of current women's issues, trends in the legal treatment of women, theories regarding treatment, and strategies for combating inequalities, Rhode's book provides a solid foundation. However, if one wants thorough analysis of specific aspects of law, or a more comprehensive look at specific sides of current debates, a more focused book is in order. The weakness of Justice and Gender is that it covers a lot of material and a wide time period in a limited amount of space. For this reason, it cannot be anything more than a brief overview of feminist jurisprudence.

Countering the book's weakness is the way in which Rhode presents the material. Her presentation is thorough, and she spells out feminist arguments with a high degree of clarity. More importantly, she is even-handed in discussing the consequences of legal reforms surrounding women's issues, assessing both the benefits and drawbacks that different legal developments have had for women. For example, in discussing equity versus equality vis-à-vis exploitation in the workplace, Rhode praises short-term legal protections for women and restitution for past inequalities, but at the same time, feels that such measures can foster long-term dependence and perpetuate the stereotype of helpless women in need of assistance from paternalistic legislators. Taken collectively, Rhode's assessment of this and other legal reforms illuminates that fact that reform usually has both progressive and regressive aspects. In other words, reform has the ability to expand opportunities for women, but usually at the expense of long-term autonomy, freedom, and true equality with men.

Rhode clearly sides with progressive reform, but admirably, she carefully addresses other perspectives without becoming polemical or rhetorical. Her work attests to the importance of dealing directly and thoroughly with issues surrounding women's legal reform since it generates such a rich portrayal of the problems facing women advocating change. Avoiding reductive formulations of gender inequality and addressing social problems in their full complexity is the only way to promote serious discussion regarding women's relation to the law. Such discussion is an important, but complex, undertaking. It is not likely to end in the "quick-fix" type of reform that simplistic, dichotomous thinking produces. For this reason, resolutions are not foreseeable in the immediate future. The process of legal reform is a long one and has been going on for at least 150 years. However, by addressing gender inequality in a thorough manner, if and when the problem is resolved, it will have a long-lived, radical effect on society.