Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:01:46.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender Justice v. The “Invisible Hand” of Gender Bias in Law and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Elizabeth Beaumont
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How does so much gender inequality endure in an era when many laws and policies endorse principles of gender equality? This essay examines this dilemma by considering Susan Moller Okin's criticism of “false gender neutrality,” research on implicit bias, and the shifting relation of gender bias to American law. I argue that these are crucial elements of the modern cycle of gender inequality, enabling it to operate through a perverse “invisible‐hand” mechanism. This framework helps convey how underlying gender bias influences individual behaviors that generate, legitimate, and mask broad patterns of inequality. Contemporary legal conflicts reflect many of these dynamics, which appear in controversies over gender‐based violence (U.S. v. Morrison 2000), gender discrimination in pay and promotion (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire 2007), and women's reproductive health care benefits (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby 2014). This analysis advances our understanding of how the contemporary cycle of gender inequality operates, the complex links between individual behavior and structural bias, and the difficulty of pursuing gender justice through prevailing frameworks of law and liberalism. It also underscores the continued importance of feminists' collective work to address “invisible” as well as visible biases.

Type
Cluster on Susan Moller Okin's Justice, Gender, and the Family
Information
Hypatia , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Summer 2016 , pp. 668 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbey, Ruth. 2014. The return of feminist liberalism. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acklesberg, Martha. 2010. Resisting citizenship: Feminist essays on politics, community, and democracy. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ariely, Dan. 2009. The end of rational economics. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2009/07/the-end-of-rational-economics (accessed September 10, 2015).Google Scholar
Baer, Judith A. 1999. Our lives before the law: Constructing a feminist jurisprudence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Greenwald, Anthony G. 1995. Implicit gender stereotyping in judgments of fame. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68 (2): 181–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Greenwald, Anthony G. 2013. Blindspot: Hidden biases of good people. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Banaszak, Lee Ann. 2010. The women's movement: Inside and outside the state. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beaumont, Elizabeth. 2014. The civic constitution: Civic visions and struggles in the path toward constitutional democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, Irene V. 2002. The malleability of automatic stereotypes and prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Review 6 (3): 242–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradwell v. Illinois 83 U.S. 130 (1873).Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy. 1995. States of injury. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014).Google Scholar
Casey, Pamela, Warren, Roger, Cheesman, Fred, and Elek, Jennifer. 2012. Helping courts address implicit bias. www.ncsc.org/ibreport (accessed June 15, 2015).Google Scholar
Chamallas, Martha. 2009. Ledbetter, gender equity, and institutional context. Ohio State Law Journal 70 (1): 1037–52.Google Scholar
Chamallas, Martha, and Wriggins, Jennifer. 2010. The measure of injury: Race, gender and tort law. New York: New York University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citron, Danielle Keats. 2009. Law's expressive value in combating cyber gender harassment. Michigan Law Review 108 (6): 373–416.Google Scholar
Conaghan, Joanne. 2013. Law and gender. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum 140: 139–67.Google Scholar
Dubois, Carol Ellen. 1998. Woman suffrage and women's rights. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1977. Taking rights seriously. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1985. Liberalism. In A matter of principle. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Eagly, Alice, and Carly, Linda. 2007. Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Zillah. 1981. The radical future of liberal feminism. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Eisenstein, Zillah. 1988. The female body and the law. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Joshua, and Axtell, Robert. 1996. Growing artificial societies: Social science from the bottom up. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fineman, Martha. 2008. The vulnerable subject: Anchoring equality in the human condition. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 20 (1): 1–23.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 2013. Fortunes of feminism: From state‐managed capitalism to neoliberal crisis. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Geduldig v. Aiello 417 U.S. 484 (1974).Google Scholar
General Electric Company v. Gilbert 429 U.S. 125 (1976).Google Scholar
Genz, Stephanie, and Brabon, Benjamin. 2009. Postfeminism: Cultural texts and theories. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader. 1975. Gender and the constitution. University of Cincinnati Law Review 44 (1): 1–42.Google Scholar
Goldfarb, Sally. 2002. The Supreme Court, the Violence Against Women Act, and the use and abuse of federalism. Fordham Law Review 71 (1): 57–147.Google Scholar
Gornick, Janet, and Meyers, Marcia. 2009. Gender equality: Transforming family divisions of labor. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Guiner, Lani. 2008. Demosprudence through dissent. Harvard Law Review 122 (1): 4–138.Google Scholar
Haag, Pamela. 2005. Navigating the new subtleties of sex‐discrimination cases in academe. The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 11. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i23/23b02001.htm (accessed March 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Hartsock, Nancy. 1983. The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism. In Discovering reality, ed. Harding, Sandra and Hintikka, Merrill B.Boston: Ridel Publishing.Google Scholar
Hasday, Jill. 2004. The canon of family law. Stanford Law Review 57 (3): 825–901.Google Scholar
Isaac, Carol, Lee, Barbara, and Carnes, Molly. 2009. Interventions that affect gender bias in hiring: A systematic review. Academic Medicine 84 (10): 1440–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, Michael. 1991. The green economy. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Jost, John, Rudman, Laurie, Blair, Irene, Carney, Dana, Dasgupta, Nlajana, Glaser, Jack, and Hardin, Curtis. 2009. The existence of implicit bias is beyond reasonable doubt: A refutation of ideological and methodological objections and executive summary of ten studies that no manager should ignore. Research in Organizational Behavior 29: 39–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, Jerry, Bennet, Judge Mark, Carbado, Devon, Casey, Pam, Dasgupta, Nilanjana, Faigman, David, Godsil, Rachel, Greenwald, Anthony, Levinson, Justin, and Mnookin, Jennifer. 2012. Implicit bias in the courtroom. UCLA Law Review 59: 1124–86.Google Scholar
Kang, Jerry, and Banaji, Mahzarin. 2006. Fair measures: A behavioral realist revision of “affirmative action”. California Law Review 94: 1063–1118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenney, Sally Jane. 2013. Gender and justice: Why women in the judiciary really matter. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Charles R. III. 1987. The id, the ego, and equal protection: Reckoning with unconscious racism. Stanford Law Review 39 (2): 317–88.Google Scholar
Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 550 U.S. 618 (2007).Google Scholar
Lister, Ruth. 1997. Dialectics of citizenship. Hypatia 12 (4): 6–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1981. After virtue: A study in moral theory. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1989. Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine. 2000. Disputing male sovereignty: On United States v. Morrison. Harvard Law Review 114 (1): 135–78.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1986. Why we lost the ERA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marilley, Suzanne. 1996. Woman suffrage and the origins of liberal feminism in the United States, 1820–1920. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClain, Linda, and Grossman, Joanna, eds. 2012. Gender equality: Dimensions of women's equal citizenship. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McRobbie, Angela. 2009. The aftermath of feminism: Gender, culture, and social change. New York: Sage.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. 1869/1988. On the subjection of women, ed. Okin, Susan Moller. Indianapolis: Hackett.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, Charles. 1997. The racial contract. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mills, Charles. 2005. “Ideal theory” as ideology. Hypatia 20 (3): 165–84.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra Talhade. 2003. Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, Ann, White, Randall, and Van Velsor, Ellen. 1987. Breaking the glass ceiling: Can women reach the top of America's largest corporations? Reading, Mass.: Addison‐Wesley Publishing.Google Scholar
Munsch, Christina, Ridgway, Cecelia, and Williams, Joan. 2014. Pluralistic ignorance and the flexibility bias: Understanding and mitigating flextime and flexplace bias at work. Work and Occupations 41 (1): 40–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. 1986. The view from nowhere. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, state, and utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1994. Invisible hand explanations. American Economic Review 84 (2): 314–31.Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1979. Women in western political thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1989. Justice, gender, and the family. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 2004. Justice and gender: An unfinished debate. Fordham Law Review 72 (5): 1537–67.Google Scholar
O'Neill, Onora. 1987. Abstraction, idealization, and ideology in ethics. In Moral philosophy and contemporary problems, ed. Evans, J. D. G.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Orr v. Orr 440 U.S. 268 (1979).Google Scholar
Otto, Diane, Morgan, Wayne, and Walker, Kristen. 1995. Rejecting (in)tolerance: Critical perspectives on the United Nations year for tolerance. Melbourne University Law Review 20 (1): 190–217.Google Scholar
Parekh, Bhikhu. 1994. Decolonizing liberalism. In The end of isms? Reflections on the fate of ideologies after communism's collapse, ed. Shtromas, Alexander. Cambridge, Mass.: Wiley‐Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The sexual contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1997. Republicanism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2010. Gender equality universally embraced, but inequalities acknowledged: 22‐nation Pew global attitudes survey. http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2010/07/Pew-Global-Attitudes-2010-Gender-Report-July-1-12-01AM-EDT-NOT-EMBARGOED.pdf (accessed June 30, 2015).Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1986. The morality of freedom. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Reed v. Reed 404 U.S. 71 (1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhode, Deborah. 1999. Speaking of sex: The denial of gender inequality. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ridgway, Cecilia. 2011. Framed by gender: How gender inequality persists in the modern world. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenblum, Nancy. 2005. Okin's liberal feminism as a radical political theory. In Toward a humanist justice, ed. Satz, Debra and Reich, Rob. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rudman, Laurie, and Kilianski, Stephen. 2000. Implicit and explicit attitudes toward female authority. Personality and Social Psychology Bulleting 26 (11): 1315–28.Google Scholar
Sandberg, Sheryl. 2013. Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael. 1982. Liberalism and the limits of justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schelling, Thomas. 1969. Models of segregation. American Economic Review 59 (2): 488–93.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1776/2003. The wealth of nations. New York: Bantam Classics.Google Scholar
Spender, Dale. 1980. Man made language. Boston: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stanton v. Stanton, 421 U.S. 7 (1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, Susan. 2001. Second generation employment discrimination: A structural approach. Columbia Law Review 101 (3): 458–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. 576 U.S. (2015).Google Scholar
Thibos, Megan, Lavin‐Loucks, Danielle, and Martin, Marcua. 2007. The feminization of poverty. Dallas: J. McDonald Williams Institute.Google Scholar
Trammel v. United States 445 U.S. 40 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronto, Joan. 2013. Caring democracy. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Ullman‐Margalit, Edna. 1978. Invisible hand explanations. Synthese 39 (2): 263–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States v. Dege 364 U.S. 51 (1960).Google Scholar
United States v. Morrison 529 U.S. 598 (2000).Google Scholar
Valian, Virginia. 2005. Beyond gender schemas: Improving the advancement of women in academia. Hypatia 20 (3): 198–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughn, Karen. 1983. Invisible hand. In The new Palgrave dictionary of economics. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wal‐mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011).Google Scholar
Weldon, Laurel. 2011. When protest makes policy: How social movements represent disadvantaged groups. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Patricia L. 1991. The alchemy of race and rights: The diary of a law professor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2000. Inclusion and democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Young v. United Parcel Service 575 U.S. (2015).Google Scholar
Yuval‐Davis, Nira. 2006. Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women's Studies 13 (3): 193–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar