Legislation and Women

Catherine Mackinnon presents a very interesting point in her article on the law in the everyday life of women. She mentions that the women adhere to a different set of rules than the usual formal ones of laws and reason, which apparently only seem to protect men. Women's lives have been bound by the lack of laws to protect their equality. Socialization, religion, popular culture, masculinity and femininity have all played a role in setting up a set of rules for women to live by which is outside of legislation. These institutions have been telling women what they are allowed to become, what is encouraged of them and what opportunities are available to them. By doing this, society is limiting the development of aspirations of women and therefore holding them back. If someone is taught to believe that they can only be so much growing up, it seriously limits their development.
Everyday, women continue to live bound by this secondary set of rules which oppresses them. It is crucial to look at the effects that society’s dominant values have on its people, most notably the victims, in order to question its foundation and justification. When we look at the foundation of a belief and see that it is clearly not in the favor of roughly half of the population, then it seems only logical to me to challenge this belief and discontinue its faith. We can no longer ignore that women are not being properly recognized by legislation. At the end of Mackinnon's article she urges us to confront existing institutions by not letting them off the hook just because of the power they hold. The only way to get the power back in the hands of the people is to challenge these institutions. It is time to start educating the youth before we have another generation of women subjugated by men.