Does A Woman Get Justice?
How can women live in this world when their perpetrators can’t even get justice.
It’s no secret that those who commit violence against women, men, in most cases do no time for their cruel acts. This is very evident in the United States legal system. There is a clear gender bias. In terms of violence, women and men get treated differently. Peach states, “Similarly, although law has traditionally interpreted domestic life as one of the affective bonds within which violence has no legitimate place, it overlooks much of the violence by men against women while denying women the right to use violence in self-defense.” As you can see, there is a double standard for women. When a woman gets hurt by a man it is overlooked, but if she uses violence to protect herself it is not okay. That does not make sense. That tells me that a man can hurt me and get away with it, but if I use violence in self-defense, that right is denied to me. How does that work?
The answer is very simple. The “law is gendered ‘male.’” Before women had rights, the law was created for men. The constitution clearly stated the word “male.” When women were granted the right to vote due to the 19th Amendment, most saw it as a big improvement in women’s rights. This was in 1920. It is 2018 and we are currently still fighting for our rights. Almost 100 years later and there is still a lot of work to be done in our country. Yes, we have more rights than we did before but the gender bias in the law still exists.
From the dawn of time, women and men have been put into ‘separate spheres,’ as Peach states. Men are seen in the public with having power while women are seen in the household doing domestic work. Women are depicted as being weak and not being able to do what men do. If you pay attention, you would see most men are the ones with government positions, with the exceptions of some women, that is why we have yet to have had a female president. A woman should not be discriminated for her sex.
Women being seen as weak relates back to how they are depicted when violence is brought upon them. They are seen as the victim. Two problems arise for women when they are victims of domestic violence which is, if they didn’t leave their abusers then they are judged and if they do leave then they are judged for “failing to adhere to the characteristics deemed appropriate to the female gender.” So, what is a woman supposed to do?
An example of how the law is bias towards women would be the film Angry Indian Goddesses. Joanna was raped by four men and when the officer came to question her friends. He cared more about what she was wearing rather than what the men did to her. They cared more about finding who killed the men rather than finding the men who raped and killed Joanna. The law is more forgiving to men rather than women. The idea that because I wear a certain type of clothing or I defend myself to someone who is trying to inflict violence upon me, I will be criticized and punished. If it was the other way around there would be no issue. This explains why 100 years later, women are still having to fight for equal pay and equal treatment in this world.
