Penal systems and women

Abstract

Understanding penal law, and specifically punitive law as an anti­discriminatory tool, is almost a contradiction or paradox. The penal system — in the State’s hands— represents the most powerful medium of social control; although it also contains a gender vision constructed by different social mechanisms. Therefore, we ask if penal law can combat gender inequality; at first glance, it appears to be a contradiction within itself. Nevertheless, we must recognize that the law —including the penal system— is constitu­ted as the principal environment to perceive, re­ ceive, and discuss social problems. Its effective­ ness as a transmitter of values and factor of change can be questioned, but never thrown out. Even more, in the field of gender inequalities, the lan­guage of the law has an important political function: Having given particular force to the claims of women’s movements that demanded the treatment and satisfaction of new material and moral needs. This debate is analyzed in this work, which reviews different theoretical conceptions that infer that the penal system is a tool for transfor­ ming social reality or feminist struggle.