Book Review: LINDA MULCAHY and SALLY WHEELER (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Contract Law. London: GlassHouse Press, 2005, 180 pp., ISBN 9781859417423, £29.00 (pbk)
| Author | Dermot Feenan |
| Published date | 01 June 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/09646639080170020702 |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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emerge across vastly differing societies, erasing crucial differences and diverse histories
in the process. The result may appear at times to be a universal and homogeneous state
of escalating violence and disorder. However, the authors are to be congratulated in
resisting this tendency by allowing reader to hear the voices of the dispossessed who
creatively rearticulate the language of law, rights, and justice in the service of their
struggles.
CARL F. STYCHIN
University of Reading, UK
LINDA MULCAHY and SALLY WHEELER (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Contract Law.
London: GlassHouse Press, 2005, 180 pp., ISBN 9781859417423, £29.00 (pbk).
The subject of gender and contracts has received growing critical attention, particularly
within the past twenty years. Scholars have revealed the gender biases of the classical
concepts such as ‘freedom of contract’, ‘arm’s-length dealing’ and ‘the reasonable man’,
forged in the latter part of the nineteenth century with little or no reference to the
reality of women’s lives. Contractual reasoning, characterized by logic and abstract
principles, rendered invisible the gendered imbalance of power and the broader
contexts of contracts. Contract textbooks, not surprisingly, appeared male. They still
generally fail to incorporate feminist approaches. Feminist Perspectives on Contract
Law addresses that deficit through nine chapters, eight primarily on English contract
law and one on pre-nuptial agreements in Australia. Linda Mulcahy’s opening chapter
comprehensively maps the literature and themes described above, inviting contract
law scholars to be more responsive to feminism, particularly within the changing
conditions of the retreat of the state where many public functions are returning to
private contractual arrangements. The need for feminist perspectives, particularly to
meet such changes, is exemplified in a chapter by Bela Bonita Chatterjee and two
chapters by Mulcahy.
Chatterjee identifies the material obstacles faced by many women in entering
equally into contracts in...
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