The power of Law and the power of feminism: a critical revision of Carol Smart’s theoretical proposal

Abstract

The power of Law and the power of feminism: a critical revision of Carol Smart’s theoretical proposal

This article develops a critical dialogue with Carol Smart’s theses, questioning the positions of this feminist author on the relationship between women, feminism and Law. More specifically, it discusses two of the theses developed in Carol Smart’s books Feminism and the Power of Law and Law, Crime and Sexuality: (1) the thesis about the power of Law to disqualify women's experience and feminist knowledge and to define women as gendered subjects; and (2) the author's proposal for a reorientation of the feminist strategy, in order to decentralize and deconstruct Law.