NCJ Number
125481
Journal
Florida Law Review Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 125-161
Date Published
1990
Length
36 pages
Annotation
The legal concept of discrimination, the logical repository for rules designed to provide political, economic, and cultural power to long-exploited groups, has failed its mission.
Abstract
Restrict the ability of a homogeneous group to exert pressure on their peers in an isolated place, and their discourse changes. The history behind this particular idea, such as the temperance movement of the 19th century, brings this point into focus. Over the course of time, some spaces typically occupied by middle-class men and women became increasingly gendered. The list of traditionally gendered spaces extant before the industrial revolution grew to include homes and workplaces. However, the temperance crusaders succeeded in altering the cultural nature of male territory, not the content of any discriminatory legal norm. While discrimination law is built upon the assumption that remedies should be extended only to those harmed by intentional misbehavior of identifiable parties, much of gendered space arises out of social patterns developed over centuries of time by the actions of countless people. 169 notes.