ABSTRACT
The presentation of law as a neutral site that seeks to generate protection for the rights of all on the basis of a declared equality hides its deeply patriarchal origins. Established by powerful men to maintain their hegemony through rules that regulate society, law has been forced, by phenomena such as the women's movement, to pay greater attention to questions concerning social justice. The idea that those fewer in number and farther from sites of power—ethnic, religious racialised, linguistic minorities, and indigenous peoples—needed to be protected from the tyranny of the many also played an important role in elaborating legal norms underpinning social justice. Yet neither the women's movement nor the minority rights struggle paid adequate attention to the rights of minority women, believing they would be covered by the emerging regimes. Intersectionality, as explored throughout this book, offers an important lens through which this persistent and ossified injustice can be addressed. But, as this epilogue asks, is it merely a tokenistic gesture to delay the inevitable need for system overhaul?
