Title

Gender Dimorphism in the United States Legal System: A "Post-Feminist" and Comparative Critique

Authors

James Wilets, Nova Southeastern University - Shepard Broad College of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-24-2010

Abstract

There has been extensive jurisprudential literature positing that the structure, values and processes of the American legal and educational system, focusing heavily on adversarial battle among parties in court, and competition in law school, are fundamentally "male-centered." This "male-female" construct suggests that there is an essential dichotomy between the two genders with respect to resolving disputes that is reflected in the legal system, and that this male-female dichotomy is harmful to all participants and perhaps to justice itself.

This article expands upon this literature by arguing that many of the dysfunctional characteristics of the American legal system labeled "male" in the traditional feminist critiques are, from a comparative and historical perspective, not essentially male at all, but simply deviant from the jurisprudential approach of the great bulk of the world's legal systems, most of which are also dominated by men.

Publication Title

ExpressO

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

ILSA J. INT'L & COMP L.

First Page

193

NSUWorks Citation

James Wilets, Gender Dimorphism in the United States Legal System: A "Post-Feminist" and Comparative Critique, 18 ILSA J. INT'L & COMP L. 193 (2010),
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/law_facarticles/284