ABSTRACT
Theories of justice are centrally concerned with whether, how, and why persons should be treated differently from each other. The gender system has rarely been subjected to tests of justice. When philosophers turn to the great tradition of Western political thought with questions about the justice of gender in mind, it is to little avail. Michael Walzer's Spheres of Justice is remarkable amongst contemporary theories of justice for the attention that its author pays to sex-and gender-related issues. Thus the paradox of Walzer's theory of justice is strikingly exemplified by the theory's feminist implications. Insofar as the reduction of domination requires a thoroughgoing feminism that undermines the very roots of our gendered institutions, it is in considerable tension with the relativist requirement that a just society is one that abides by its shared understandings. The chapter argues that Walzer's requirement that justice be relative to "shared understandings" or "social meanings" tends to conflict with his "separate spheres" criterion of justice.
