ABSTRACT
The legal sanction may even be deprivation of the opportunity to play that particular role in that relationship. Non-conformity with rules that comprise the minimum role requirement will result in legal sanction. A mother who cannot conform to the legal rules of motherhood may find herself deprived of the opportunity to play this role at all, if her child is taken into care. Legal institutions support the ordering of society on a gender role basis. That an individual has no choice of sex is clear, but society is free to choose the social consequences, if any, to be attached to sex – that is, the gender role to which the individual must conform. Relationships recognised by law are structured and defined by that recognition. This plea for an end to official ascription of role based on sex is not intended to suggest that legal changes would bring about social revolution or even true economic equality between the sexes.
