The Legal Construction Of Gender Equality

This paper intends to analyze the reasons why gender discrimination is still in existence widely today, even after the gender equality in public sphere has already been acknowledged in legal documents. Based on the research into the causes of gender discrimination in law, it has disclosed the dualistic configuration in law, relating to the distinction which divides the public sphere and the private, and the homogeneity of this dualistic configuration and gender discrimination. The gender equality principle in private sphere won't be established automatically as established in public sphere; on the contrary, the legal validity of gender equality in public sphere is being reduced by the gender discrimination in private sphere. The gender discrimination will not be eliminated just by granting females the equal right in law, so the legal research work should start with the configuration relating to the distinction which separates the public sphere from the private in the so-called "man power" law. In order to solve this problem, the traditional division standard of the public sphere and the private must be revised, and take the nature of things instead of family as the reference frame. However, through the analysis of sex right, family violence and basis of marriage, it is disclosed that the gender discrimination in private sphere is just the result of the fact that females are short of constructing power in public sphere, in another word, women are "dumb" in law. In this sense, the problem of gender discrimination can't be settled perfectly by self-construction of private sphere. Hence, the ultimate resolution of this difficult problem lies on changing the gender division of labor rather than just adjusting the division standard of the public sphere and the private. Obviously, it is not only an issue of law. With a distinct and novel point of view, this paper has achieved some originality as follows:â…  .Revealing the origin of gender discrimination and its legal construction from the sociology and anthropology point of view.â…¡ .By criticizing the traditional law theory, esp. "the theory of social contract", which glosses over the fact of gender discrimination, it has disclosed that the females are excluded out of law.â…¢. With analyzing the limitations of traditional way to reduce gender discrimination, it demonstrates the identity of gender discrimination and the dualistic configuration, it brings forward a new legal way to settle this problemâ…£. On the basis of gender equality rule, it revealed the relations between sex right and state power.In this sense, the protection of female's sex right is related to the principle and limit of the intervention of state.V. With analyzing the origin and foundation of family violence, it cleared the boundary between the family violence and the public, and the historical reasons why family violence is not accepted in "man power" law.VI. It has made a deep research into the gender basis in marriage, which tells the gender discrimination with the coercion of law behind this natural character.VII. Through the logical analysis, it demonstrated that something in the female thought is more or less the same as that in legal thought, and that it is absolutely a prejudice that females is not suitable for legal occupation.After these argumentation, we could easily reach the conclusion that an virtual reform must be carried out in order to eliminate the gender discrimination, not only a revise the division standard which separates the sphere and the private in the "man power" law, but also strengthen the females' constructing power in public sphere, esp. in law. And to resolve the latter problem, it is not enough just to provide more law occupations for the females. It is necessary to extinguish the opposition of sex division of labor and that of the cultural value. There is still a long way to go in the research of the gender equality.