ABSTRACT
John Rawls calls his theory “justice as fairness” because the principles of justice are agreed upon in an initial situation that is fair. This simply means that the parties making the voluntary agreement are free, equal, and have no knowledge about their particular place in society or particular personal characteristics. Rawls calls the people in the original position “parties,” not individuals or men and women. These “parties” are to be thought of as “representing continuing lines of chain,” “deputies for a kind of everlasting moral agent or institution,” “heads of families,” “continuing persons,” or “representatives of families”. Many argue that no gender equality or justice can be found until the family and the private sphere are included in theories of justice. Traditional theorists, with the exception of Plato in The Republic, have argued that the private realm is one in which love and familial ties dominate, not ideas of justice. Justice is reserved for the public realm of politics.
