ABSTRACT
Recent debates on the reform of the divorce law and the equally heated controversies about suitable educational policies to enhance the standing of the traditional marriage among school-children 1 are a good example of the close interrelationship between gender and the state. Neither of these terms figures explicitly in the rhetoric that characterises the debates. While the appeal to family values is generally couched in the gender-neutral language of responsible parenthood, on the one hand, and of individual selfishness, on the other, the main beneficiary of a reinvigorated family appears to be the stability and moral cohesion of society as a whole. It is not difficult to see, however, that public perceptions of ‘the’ family are shot through with assumptions about gender roles; and the seemingly unproblematic demands of society’s common interest cover for what is in fact a highly contested political issue: that of the right and the capacity of the modern liberal state to enforce a particular order of private life.
