ABSTRACT
For several decades now, equality has had a bad name in feminist research. Carol Smart, in her Feminism and the Power of Law, published in 1989, presents a critique in a nutshell that is, I think, representative for many feminists. To cite Smart: ‘[t]he growth of modern feminism…corresponds both to notions of equality and the idea that equality of opportunity can be achieved through law in the form of legal rights. Law may remain oppressive to women, but the form it takes is no longer the denial of formal rights which are preserved to men… while it might have been appropriate for early feminists to demand legal rights…the rhetoric of rights has become exhausted, and may even be detrimental… especially …where the demand is for a “special” right…for which there has been no masculine equivalent…’. Also, ‘…the liberal notion of equality is too limited to affect structural inequalities…’ (Smart 1989, 139. Italics KN).
