Women's Court Feminized Justice Summary

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Before the 1900’s, equal rights for women were not even in the question. Women were not allowed to vote, own property, or have equal healthcare let alone equal pay. Women were deprived of the right to sexual freedom and did not have equal liberation. They were mostly viewed as baby breeders, and were to stay home to cook, raise children, and take care of the household. Feminism is a movement designed to change society’s perspective on women. Feminism was a movement implemented to establish equal rights for women despite the undeniable paradigm of thought toward them. Ideologically, in order to be a feminist, you must have a belief in the system of patriarchy and the oppression of women conscious or unconsciously by men. Toronto’s Women’s Court…show more content…
Often times when you read about feminism, you are often persuaded to believe that feminism is 100% the beneficial response to equality in society. The thing that is mostly appreciated upon reading Feminized Justice is that the author maintains a neutral standpoint on the topic. She understands that one gender is not better than the other. Women have inherited specific qualities and traits that give them an advantage over some things, and men have characteristics that outweigh women’s. Each of these physiognomies should be appreciated for their own. Society often distinguishes roles by placing everything down to the common denominator. Women’s rights, needs and concerns should not be valued below or above a mans but however at a neutral standpoint, and I think that is what the author was getting at in this…show more content…
Glasbeek explains that even the presence of unreformable women let alone the disciplinary action set to control them acted as a huge threat to the movement and acceptability of the women’s court in general. With the consideration of all circumstances and outlooks, Glasbeek determines that the establishment of the women’s court was neither a success nor a failure but rather an example of feminized justice. She defined this as the “triangular relationship between morality, sexuality, and the criminal terrain.” The Toronto Women’s Court was a place where women from all over the GTA were to meet and express their legal difficulties, however this was not the case. In chapters three to five, the author goes more in detail about how the courts downgraded and interdicted women rather than allowing them to express personal rights and autonomy. Coverage by the media, statistics of crime, reformatory files and jail registers were all sources provided by the Glasbeek to shed insight of the effect on women who were penalized that the court had. Despite all of this, Glasbeek explains how the white-middle-class women’s right activists believed the TWC was a big achievement for Toronto as they believed it practiced “white, middle-class women’s politicization of the criminal justice system.” And therefore proved

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