Why Feminism Matters to the Study of Law

Abstract

Queen's University's Faculty of Law is home to Feminist Legal Studies Queen's (FLSQ), a research group that expands awareness and development of scholarship in feminist legal studies, enables the development of feminist legal scholars at Queen's, and fosters connections among feminists with an interest in law. In the fall of 2014, I had the privilege of returning to Queen's Law to give the first seminar in FLSQ's 2014–15 lecture series. I was tasked with providing some reflections on why feminist legal theory matters. Some of the people attending the talk were also enrolled in the Queen's Feminist Legal Studies Workshop. The readings assigned for those students were (1) Toni Pickard's (retired Queen's law faculty member) wonderful introduction to law students at Queen's from 1987, 1 (2) Patricia Monture's (a graduate of Queen's) 2004 piece, “Women's Words,” 2 and (3) Ruthann Robson's (lesbian legal theorist and class critic) piece “To Market, To Market.” 3 What follows is the text from that talk.