Abstract
AbstractGender in socio-legal teaching and research in Germany is a story of impediments, hindrances, and of singleperson initiatives—my personal history being a part of this. But it is also a story of influences upon the impulse and inspiration to undertake socio-legal work. My Article is therefore influenced by (feminist) standpoint theory (Harding 1991). Germany has had a very conservative family culture and, over the past decades, many of the legal regulations that infringed upon women have had to be adapted, in what was quite a tedious political process, to comply with the German Constitution’s gender equality clause. Only in the past decade has gender awareness in law faculties increased and gained acceptance, usually as a result of greater focus on diversity issues, and anti-discrimination legislation. Obstacles have resulted from a lack of cooperation between the actors in social sciences and law, as well as in academia and gender equality practice, and a lack of understanding between more conservative and more progressive women. Socio-legal research was, and is, needed to deliver empirical evidence and provide theoretical foundations for cultural and legal changes as societies progress towards gender equality. Socio-legal teaching is needed to alert lawyers to necessary change, to enable them to undertake informed critique, and to prepare them to act. There are, however, marked deficits in socio-legal teaching and research on gender. In spite of an increased political acceptance, gender equality is still mainly a women’s project.
Highlights
Developments in the 1970s and 1980sWomen lawyers—many of them organized in the German Women Lawyers Association (Deutscher Juristinnenbund)—dealt systematically with these disadvantages and discriminations, taking cases in which the gender equality clause was infringed to the Federal Constitutional Court, and working on proposals for legislative change
Gender in socio-legal teaching and research in Germany is a story of impediments, hindrances, and of single-person initiatives—my personal history being a part of this
Germany has had a very conservative family culture and, over the past decades, many of the legal regulations that infringed upon women have had to be adapted, in what was quite a tedious political process, to comply with the German Constitution’s gender equality clause
Summary
Women lawyers—many of them organized in the German Women Lawyers Association (Deutscher Juristinnenbund)—dealt systematically with these disadvantages and discriminations, taking cases in which the gender equality clause was infringed to the Federal Constitutional Court, and working on proposals for legislative change.. Women lawyers—many of them organized in the German Women Lawyers Association (Deutscher Juristinnenbund)—dealt systematically with these disadvantages and discriminations, taking cases in which the gender equality clause was infringed to the Federal Constitutional Court, and working on proposals for legislative change.14 It was not an easy task, as some fields of law had no, or very few, female legal experts engaging with a gendered perspective—for example, social security law and tax law. The following table shows the meager participation of women in law until well into the 1980s, juxtaposed with the current proportion of women in legal studies, the judiciary, in legal practice, and the legal academy, where the number of women is still strikingly low
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