Gender Equality and the Law Essay -- Feminism Equality Social Issues E

Gender Equality and the LawOne of Ruth Bader Ginsburgs primary goals of the Womens Rights Projects litigation was to prove that stereotypical treatment of gender under the law was unconstitutional. It was Ginsburgs goal to make the Court realize that the laws derived function treatment of men and women, rationalized as reflecting natural differences between the sexes, historically had tended to contribute to womens subordination (Ginsburg 11). Ginsburg carefully selected cases which she felt would produce the greatest results. To do this, she pursue(d) a series of cases that illuminate(d) the most common instances of gender distinctions in the law (Ginsburg 14). In three cases, Reed v. Reed, Frontiero v. Richardson, and Craig v. Boren, Ginsburg was successful in arguing that effectual distinctions on the home of sex qualified as suspect classifications. Therefore the state must show a compelling interest in its legislation, and must demonstrate that the subject matter are necessa rily related to the ends sought to be achieved by the statue and are the least restrictive (Mezey 16). Today, it is debatable whether women are equal to men in the eye of the law. However, without the Womens Rights Projects litigation of the nineteen seventies, women would be remain subjected to stereotypical legal treatment and thus would still be regulated to an insufficient status of citizenship.The first case in which the Supreme Court invalidated a law which discriminated on the basis of sex became extremely important because it peck the president to which many future opinions would refer. Reed v. Reed, 1971, Ginsburg argued that Sally Reed was denied equal protection which should have been protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, when her husband wa... ...udes by stating in its opinion for Goesart v. Cleary 1948, that Michigan could, beyond question, forbid all women from working behind a bar (Goldstein 102 ). However, in 1976 the Supreme Court refused to approve laws which w ere establish on archaic and overbroad generalizations or on old notions of role typing (Mezey 19). Clearly, great strides have been taken towards anti stereotypical legislation, in roughly a quarter of a century. Legal equality for women is in large part due to the Womens Rights Projects litigation of the nineteen seventies and the legal genius of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who made the Court scrutinize sex Discrimination cases much more closely. The result is that the Supreme Court must test policies and practices by asking whether they integrally contribute to the maintenance of an underclass or a deprived position because of gender (Ginsburg 20).