Law, Feminism and the Death of Marriage

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Venue
Russell Square: College Buildings

About this event

Professor Rosemary Auchmuty, School of Law, University of Reading.

Please note that this seminar has been postponed until 18th April 2013.

In Feminism and the Power of Law Carol Smart argued that feminists should use non-legal strategies rather than looking to law to bring about women’s liberation. This paper seeks to demonstrate that, as far as marriage is concerned, she was right. Statistics and contemporary commentary show how marriage, once the ultimate and only acceptable status for women, has declined in social significance to such an extent that today it is a mere lifestyle choice. This is due to many factors, including the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s, improved education and job opportunities for women, and divorce law reform, but the catalyst for change was the feminist critique that called for the abandonment (rather than the reform) of the institution and made the unmarried state possible for women. I conclude that this loss of significance has been more beneficial to British women in terms of the possibility of ‘liberation’ than appeals for legal change and recognition, and that we should continue to be wary of looking to law to solve women’s problems.

Bio: Rosemary Auchmuty is Professor of Law and Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Law, University of Reading.  She writes on property law, legal history, and marriage, all from a feminist perspective.

Organiser: Bloomsbury Gender Network hosted by the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

Contact email: rs94@soas.ac.uk