After Misogyny : How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It

A rigorous analysis of systemic misogyny in the law and a thoughtful exploration of the tools needed to transcend it through constitutional change beyond litigation in the courts. Just as racism is embedded in the legal system, so is misogyny—even after the law proclaims gender equality and criminally punishes violence against women. In After Misogyny , Julie C. Suk shows that misogyny lies not in animus but in the overempowerment of men and the overentitlement of society to women's unpaid labor and undervalued contributions. This is a book about misogyny without misogynists. From antidiscrimination law to abortion bans, the law fails women by keeping society's dependence on women's sacrifices invisible. Via a tour of constitutional change around the world, After Misogyny shows how to remake constitutional democracy. Women across the globe are going beyond the antidiscrimination paradigm of American legal feminism and fundamentally resetting baseline norms and entitlements. That process, what Suk calls a "constitutionalism of care," builds the public infrastructure that women's reproductive work has long made possible for free. "Decades after liberal constitutional democracies ended the laws of patriarchy and committed to gender equality, misogyny still pervades women's lives. Often expressed as hatred and discrimination against women, misogyny is the legal aftermath of patriarchy, which goes beyond attacking and belittling women. After Misogyny reframes misogyny as society's overentitlement to women's forbearance and sacrifices, which continues to be expressed in the law even after patriarchy has been repudiated. Women's contributions, both inside and outside the home, are radically undercompensated and highly beneficial to society-especially the reproductive work of childbearing and childrearing. From antidiscrimination law to abortion bans, the law fails women by keeping the dynamics of social overentitlement and male overempowerment invisible. In recent years, many constitutional democracies have used new processes of constitution-making and constitutional change to reset entitlements and power. After Misogyny shows how movements to reset these baseline entitlements are necessary for constitutional democracies to overcome misogyny" Contents Introduction: Legal Patriarchy and Its Aftermath Part I. How the Law Fails Women misogyny beyond misogynists 1 The Equal Protection of Feminists and Misogynists 2 Overentitlement and Overempowerment 3. Misogyny and Maternity: Abortion Bans as Overentitlement Part II. What to Do about It remaking constitutions and democracy 4. From Patriarchy to Prohibition: Resetting Entitlements through Constitutional Change 5 Rebalancing Power through Parity Democracy 6. Building Feminist Infrastructures: The Constitutionalism of Care Conclusion: Toward a Feminist Remaking of Constitutional Democracy Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index