A Break in the Silence: Including Women's Issues in a Torts Course

Abstract

I teach torts, a mainstay of the first year law curriculum. Judging from the way most casebooks present this subject, one would think that notions about gender roles and gender stereotypes are irrelevant to the past development or current understanding of tort law. Economic theory, on the other hand, is presented as obviously relevant to the subject. So what possible insights could feminist theory offer to tort law? After all, the torts course is not just about women. But neither is feminist theory. I also teach a course which is commonly misunderstood as marginal: a course on feminist theory and the law. Yet I am struck by the extent to which this course grapples with all the fundamental issues of human experience: birth, death, love, hate, marriage, divorce, caring, violence, employment, unemployment, economic security, poverty, power, and powerlessness. Far from being marginal, feminist theory is concerned with the entire realm of law.