ABSTRACT
This chapter sets forth some of the larger themes and theoretical suppositions about law, ideology, and the traditional perspective of feminist legal theory that informs the consideration of the neutered mother, the sexual family, and the contemporary regulation of intimacy that constitute part of what the author designate as twentieth-century tragedies. It is important to emphasize that when law is the object of analysis, certain unique methodological and conceptual constraints operate upon any theoretical endeavor. In feminist legal theory, patriarchal ideology has also had significant constraining influence. The author is concerned however, by recent attempts to establish a canon of so-called basic feminist jurisprudential works, most of which either ignore the family as a significant structure or consider it only tangentially in exploring the main issues of work, sexuality, and violence. The family may be presented as a site of inequality or an institution to be reformed, but it is neglected as an independent focus for feminist legal theory.
