India: Gender Neutral Laws in four years

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2010-04-29 04:42

Story here. Excerpt:

'BANGALORE: The government will be working towards making laws gender neutral in the next four years, Union minister of law and justice M Veerappa Moily said on Sunday.

He also said after legislating the Right to Education Act the government will soon come up with a Food Security Act.

“We have already passed the Right to Education Act and Food Security Act is coming shortly,” Moily said while inaugurating a three-day 'Civil Society Summit: The state of the Indian Republic @ 60', here. Observing that a number of laws were gender-biased, he said “they (laws) should become gender neutral and I assure you in the next four years this will be done.” '

This has been a demand from Indian MRAs and Indian feminists are upset. Yesterday, I was talking to a feminist legal scholar from the local Law College. She claims that DV laws in many US states are still gender-specific. As far as I know, California was the only state with gender-specific DV laws, and that was before `Woods v Shewry'.

Can someone from the US say what the true position is? In particular, I'd request Marc A.

Thanks -- Mangesh

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Comments

I hope this goes thru and all Indian laws are made gender neutral.

That way, the MRAs who aren't getting it will finally understand that gender neutrality in law will not fix the problem. Women will still get much more leniency than men.

It doesn't matter what lobbying efforts we make here in the US. The simple truth is that women are granted greater protection via social forces. That won't change until the biology changes. Once we have "equal law" and the genders are still treated differently, we can finally put to rest the notion that "equality" is the answer to the social problems men face today.

I'll add that it would be nice to be proven wrong, but I know I won't be.

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Submitted by Demonspawn on Thu, 2010-04-29 22:59

historically women have not always gotten off nearly scott free, there would be consequences. I disagree that we can't do it without changing biology.

I could make some lame argument, just as feminists do, and say women should never be violent. and men sometimes must be, so... blah blah blah. all it has comes down to is that feminists have been in power for the last few decades.

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Submitted by fondueguy on Fri, 2010-04-30 07:48

manonthestreet

Gender neutral is another way of saying women special and privileged. Any way what right have legislators got to impose their will on the rest of the population?

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Submitted by trotter on Fri, 2010-04-30 08:58

Mangesh,
Nearly all laws in the U.S. are gender neutral. But because of the political, economic, and numeric power of feminism, they are never applied in a gender-neutral manner. The judiciary, through custom or coercion, nearly always favors women in DV, custody, and criminal matters since not to do so makes them a target of women's groups. Same with law enforcement.

Fortunately, in India the difference in power between feminists and MRAs is not as great as in the U.S., so that if men's groups keep growing, then gender neutrality may become a reality. Changing the laws is always just the beginning.

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Submitted by Hunchback on Fri, 2010-04-30 12:05

manonthestreet

I don't think anywhere in the world so called gender neutral legislation is enacted with the intention of helping men. If India is going down this route it is not because of concern for men's interests. I don't see India as being a special case. Better watch out Mangesh your about to be shafted.

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Submitted by trotter on Fri, 2010-04-30 16:22

I just said given preferential treatment. Women will not receive the same sentences as men. Women will get away with things because they have greater social value.

Once you add greater social value to equal legal value, that will become greater social and greater legal value as people will care more for those who have greater social value and clamor for laws to protect them.

That is why the only system which can be sustained is one where women have greater social value (granted by biology and not changeable) while men have greater legal value/rights.

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Submitted by Demonspawn on Fri, 2010-04-30 19:54