Essay On Liberal Feminism

Liberal feminism may be classed as ‘inadequate’ compared to other approaches to feminism, however, in itself, liberal feminism is actually groundbreaking. In 1994 the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act made it illegal for a man to rape his wife. This revolution was attained easily by dismissing the word ‘unlawful’ from the statuary definition of rape as it appeared in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976. Astonishingly, prior to this change there were acts of rape which could infact be legal, due to the law interpreting the meaning of marriage as a continual consent to sex, consensual or not. This law that has protected married men from committing crimes is what feminists label ‘the patriarchal legal system’. The law’s interpretation here created a view on marriage that: all husbands owned their wives, as if a piece of property. For example in the 1736 case of R v R Chief Justice Hale ruled that a husband cannot be guilty of raping his wife due to marital exemption and therefore
In the 1960s notable achievements of the feminists included the landmark Equal Pay Act 1963 and the inclusion of sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act. This legislation was mirrored in Britain a decade on and, most appropriately, reflect on the efforts of liberal feminists. There foremost principle is that men and women are equal individuals and that this should be guaranteed, recognised, and protected by law.

Now, many transformative decades later, we can conclude that liberal feminism is not inadequate, as it has been a provision of material assistance in the gender relating issues women have had been tasked with for many years. Liberal feminism has therefore proved its adequacy in achieving equality between women and men however, to further itself and reach its ultimate goals liberal feminism must move beyond the incomplex belief that a balanced treatment before the law must mean the exact same