© Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica What Can Legal Feminism Do? —The Theoretical Reflections on Gender, Law and Social Transformation (original) (raw)

This paper seeks to introduce and reflect upon the debates within legal feminism in both the western and non-western world. These debates are centred around the issue of feminism adding women’s experiences of law through political struggle, which contains the recognition of feminism’s normative and transformative aspirations. It thus asks three key questions: Can law fully express women’s experiences? Can law improve women’s lives? Can feminist law reform help advance women’s project? The author proposes a theoretical interpretation by relating feminist legal claims with the broader political struggle for gender justice. It then analyses the tensions within legal feminism, defines feminist struggle as a feminist legal strategy that is contingent and subject to changing social contexts, and finally proposes a particular perspective for feminist legal theorizing and activism in the post-colonial context. Key Words: legal feminism (or feminist legal theory), legal subject Woman, women’...