| dc.description.abstract | Almost in all known and existing societies, women en masse have always constituted a
disadvantaged group which is routinely the subject of discrimination. Even in the United
States of America, ohe of the world's most developed countries and practitioners of liberal
democracy, the Equal Rights Amendment aimed at formally constitutionalizing the equality
of women and men in American society failed to achieve ratification by the requisite state
legislatures in order to become law within the required time. Even in countries where
gender equality is guaranteed within the legal corpus, de facto equality may not exist.
Writes Tove S
tang Dahl:
M[E]quality under the law today does not preclude the practice of discrimination. Rules
on equality of treatment do not, of themselves materialize into
equal or just results,
either in individual cases or collectively. Often it is just the opposite that the goal of
equality demands unequal treatment in order to give weak parties or groups the oppor-
tunity for equality and equal worth. In this respect, law can only be properly evaluated
if one, in addition to understanding the text of the law and its intention, has insight into
the law's consequences for individuals. "2 | en_US |
