Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1999

Abstract

In this Article, I will explore the roles of women and the expectations that society maintains for them in the past and the expectations for the present and future. As we enter the millennium, the courts appear to administer the law in the same way as laws were administered prior to the women's rights movement. Judges appear to implement notions of equal rights while society attaches the notions of the "difference group" without any special treatment for the dual roles. Something interesting appears to be happening to the dual roles of women. There is one standard stating that women must work, and yet another standard suggesting that women are to be caregivers following the traditional notions of caring and nurturing their youth, even though the work standard has pushed them out of the home. What is a woman to do? Part I of this Article focuses on how the laws have adapted to the differing perspectives of women's roles that were launched within the feminist movement. I will also present the promises that women were given by society. Part II of the Article examines the problems facing women as we enter the millennium. Finally, Part III considers various recommendations to address these problems. It is my contention that the problems women are facing will persist, if they are not remedied, in part, from the promises presented during the feminist movement. Three dominant themes: culture, sameness (the equality principle), and dominance, emerged during the feminist movement. Newly enacted statutes, rules of law, and judicial opinions focused on one of those themes, the equality principle. Supreme Court decisions resting on the equality principle have often involved men as plaintiffs or men as injured parties rather than women. The equality principle, however, did not enhance the status of women but actually hindered women and enhanced the status of men.

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