Online | Faces of Gender Inequality

Please note that the time allocated for this seminar will be devoted to discussion of the paper. Download a copy of the paper.

Speaker:  Prof. Sophia Moreau (University of Toronto)

About the Paper

“Faces of Gender Inequality” sets out a framework for conceptualizing why certain gender inequalities are unjust. It draws upon the pluralist theory of discrimination that I have elaborated and defended in my book, Faces of Inequality (OUP 2020), but it applies this framework specifically to gender-based discrimination. It argues that gender-based discrimination is unjust insofar as it contributes to the subordination of women as a group; insofar as it denies particular women deliberative freedom, or the freedom to shape their lives in accordance with their own ambitions, without having to treat their gender as a cost; and insofar as it denies women access to what I call a “basic good,” namely, a good that is necessary for these women to be, and to be seen as, equals in their societies. I discuss a number of cases of gender-based discrimination from different countries, and I try to show how this framework for conceptualizing unjust gender inequalities gives us a rich and nuanced understanding of the injustices that these women face.  Importantly, the framework that I propose does not focus on the intent or explicit message of the discriminatory actor. Rather, it focuses on the effects of the discrimination on women. It is these effects, and not the aims of the government or organization that adopted the problematic policies, that render these inequalities unjust. My framework therefore enables us to see indirect discrimination as unjust for many of the same reasons as direct discrimination. My framework also requires us to approach the relevant effects from the standpoint of the particular women who have faced discrimination, rather than from some neutral standpoint, as though we are looking down on them from somewhere else. We need to understand particular women’s needs from their perspectives, and we need to grapple with the very real differences in power and authority between men and women, as women experience them.

About the Speaker

Sophia Moreau is Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her research combines philosophical and legal scholarship and ranges from discrimination law and tort theory to problems in moral and political philosophy.  Her most recent work is a book that defends an original and pluralist theory of what makes discrimination wrongful (Faces of Inequality, Oxford University Press, 2020).  Her current research projects include “Tort Law in a Social Context,” for which she has received a 5 year SSHRC grant to develop a database to track of tort law’s impact on minority groups; and a philosophical project on the nature of moral and cultural obligations.  Sophia is an Associate Editor of Philosophy & Public Affairs, Book Reviews Editor of The University of Toronto Law Journal, and sits on the Board of CEDSPL, a Danish Centre for the study of discrimination.  She will hold a Chancellor Jackman Fellowship in the Humanities in 2021-22 and will be a visiting Weinstein Fellow at Berkeley in the spring of 2022.

Delivery

This event will be delivered via Zoom Meeting. Attendees will be encouraged to keep their cameras on during the event however microphones will be turned off unless delegates are contributing to discussion and/or asking a question. You will receive your zoom joining link 48-hours before the start of the event. Contact the Laws Events team (laws-events@ucl.ac.uk) if you have not receive the link

About the Institute

The Institute brings together political and legal theorists from Law, Political Science and Philosophy and organises regular colloquia in terms 2 and 3.

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