Gender Glossary: Analysis of court judgments using a feminist lens

Office of Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, first female Additional Solicitor General of India.
In the booklet, we analyzed whether the language used in court judgments stereotypes women in an invidious manner reflecting discrimination based on sex. We studied the role of the language of the law in reinforcing dominance and stereotyping based on gender.
In this work, each chapter then illustrates is that the courts still do not look at dominance in relationships between groups and individuals as being the root of inequality and hence fail to recognize discrimination based on sex. Stereotypical notions of who is a good or a bad woman are also found in judgments. It is not intended to be exhaustive. We employ representative example illustrating how language determine the content of equality and result in discrimination in law and of outcomes. It is aimed at documenting how the language used in judgements of the courts and hence the language of law spreads notions of superiority and inferiority between the sexes and reflects the discrimination against woman inherent in the language of the courts. It is divided into two parts. Part I documents from reported judgements how courts have stereotyped woman into good woman, bad women and suggests how the same issue could be expressed in a non-discriminatory manner. It is organized under several issues such as women and marriage, women and work, women and violence, women in relationship of marriage, women and reproductive rights etc. It also documents some cases in which the language used is appropriate and points the way to nondiscrimination. Part II is a glossary of legal terms which may commonly occur in the law relating to woman and provides some terms which have helped cleanse the law of its historical baggage of inequality.