Male-dominated law and legal knowledge essentially characterized the whole of pre-modern
history in that the patriarchy represented the axis of social relations in both the private and
public spheres. Indeed modern and even contemporary law still have embedded elements of
patriarchal heritage even in the secular modern legal systems of Western developed countries
either within the content of legislation or in terms of its implementation and interpretation.
This is true to a greater or lesser extent across legal systems although the secular modern
legal systems of the Western developed countries have made great advances in terms of gender
equality. The traditional understanding of law has always been self-evidently dominated by men
but modern law and its understanding have also been more or less malestreamed. Therefore it
has become necessary to overcome the given maskulinity of legal thought. In contemporary legal
and political orders gender mainstreaming of law has been of the utmost importance for
overcoming deeply and persistently embedded power relations and gender-based unequal social
relations. At the same time and equally importantly the gender mainstreaming of legal
education - to which this book aims to contribute - can help to gradually eliminate this male
dominance and accompanying power relations from legal education and higher education as a
whole. This open access textbook provides an overview of gender issues in all areas of law
including sociological historical and methodological issues. Written for students and teachers
around the globe it is intended to provide both a general overview and in-depth knowledge in
the individual areas of law. Relevant court decisions and case studies are supplied throughout
the book.
