ABSTRACT
Scott advocates poststructuralist feminism. She begins her essay by explicating several key poststructuralist concepts, namely, language, discourse, difference, and deconstruction. Then she undertakes to demonstrate the virtues of poststructuralist feminism by examining the controversial role of feminist expert witnesses in EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1979). In this case, lawyers for Sears successfully defended the company against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s sex discrimination charges by claiming that women are different from men. Since women are relational and noncompetitive, they lack interest in high-paying, commission sales positions. Women’s preferences, as opposed to Sears’s discrimination, were adduced to account for sex segregation in positions at Sears.
