ABSTRACT

Feminist philosophy of law has been shaped by debates between liberal feminists who emphasize non-discrimination and equality of opportunity and more radical feminists who offer a variety of far-reaching criticisms of the law as a structure of patriarchal power. This chapter provides a brief methodological note about non-ideal theory. It provides an account of the conceptual separation between law and morality advocated by legal positivists. The chapter then explores the feminist philosophy of law and illustrates two examples such as, sexual harassment and abortion. The development of the tradition of utilitarian liberalism in Britain was an early setting for the fuller development of legal positivism, particularly in the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. Feminist philosophy of law has been informed by different approaches to feminism itself. The so-called "first-wave" feminism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attempted to achieve political rights for women.