Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice

Product Information

How can God justify punishing Adam and Eve for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when prior to eating from the tree, then didn’t have any knowledge of good and evil?! I think, too, about reading and watching the coverage not so long ago about the great athlete Oscar Pistorius, who shot his girlfriend in a fit of rage, or the footballer Ched Evans, who was acquitted on a retrial of rape, having been given the heads-up by a friend that there was a young woman available for sex who just happened to be very drunk, or the politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who walked away from a sexual assault allegation on an immigrant hotel worker claiming it was consensual, only to be later exposed as a man with an unquenchable appetite for aggressive sex with strangers. All these men were able to rally huge public support. I think of John Warboys, the taxi driver who was responsible for the assault of legions of women but was considered suitable for release by the Parole Board after nine years. Then there is Donald Trump, who boasted on tape that he liked to ‘grab women by the pussy’ and admitted he could do so without any consequences because of his power and fame; who also said that he thought women who had abortions deserved ‘some form of punishment’. He then went on to become president of the United States, supported by swathes of men but also a large number of women who think he speaks for them. I read and watch female journalists, paid assassins, turn on women who speak out about the ways in which lecherous men grope them, or I hear senior women at the Bar say that young women who complain of roaming hands should not consider a career in law if they cannot deal with it, and then I wonder how long it will take before there is equality. For millennia women have been made to feel shame. They have been told that what happens to them is their fault and it is they who are blamed for their failures, their shortcomings, their conduct. That is the power of patriarchy. Male dominance is maintained by this stuff. Women are made to feel soiled. They absorb feelings of guilt. The voice in their heads is mouthing cultural norms created by men and sold to women. ‘It must have been something about me that made him do that to me.’ Thanks for joining us for the invite-only launch. We look forward to evolving based on what we learn and what we hear from you. Majority of the text is devoted to the stereotyping imposed on women in courts, whether they appear as defendants (unnatural viragos), plaintiffs (probably asked for it), or witnesses (notoriously unreliable). Far fewer women actually get prosecuted, but those that do, suffer harsher sentences than their male counterparts for equivalent crimes. In the midst of this, the court does not take into account other aspects such as depriving children of a mother and the condition of the woman in jail. What is great about this book is that there are numerous real-life examples and cases given, allowing a greater insight to Kennedy's statements.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (3:6-7) In Eve Was Shamed Helena Kennedy forensically examines the pressing new evidence that women are still being discriminated against throughout the legal system, from the High Court (where only 21% of judges are women) to female prisons (where 84% of inmates are held for non-violent offences despite the refrain that prison should only be used for violent or serious crime). In between are the so-called ‘lifestyle’ choices of the Rotherham girls; the failings of the current rules on excluding victims’ sexual history from rape trials; battered wives being asked why they don’t ‘just leave’ their partners; the way statistics hide the double discrimination experienced by BAME and disabled women; the failure to prosecute cases of female genital mutilation... the list goes on. The law holds up a mirror to society and it is failing women. Baroness Helena Kennedy’s Eve Was Framed: Women and British Justice is so much more than a book about law. It is not a book which will tell you what the law is, in which situations to apply the law, how the law is passed etc. That would be function of a textbook. This book is a polemic and therefore asserts Kennedy’s opinion on the injustice of the criminal law by critiquing the intimidating nature of court with the paraphernalia of wigs and gowns, assessing the impact of this mystical element of the law, and talking about her experiences as a very successful female barrister. If you want to learn more about law than the law itself, for example the wider impact of the law on women, social classes and ethnic minorities, then this book is the one for you.In particular, I enjoyed Kennedy’s imaginary court procedure: Eve is being tried for causing of the Fall of Man because she ate from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. Kennedy envisages the speech for the prosecution, the defence’s response, and wittily comments “transportation from Paradise is one thing, but a sentence of eternal damnation when the conviction has to be based on the uncorroborated testimony of a co-accused must surely constitute a breach of human rights!” Similarly, consider that God is depicted in this story very much like a stereotype of the parent of a young child, who is too young to know the difference between good and evil. Adam and Eve are told not to eat the forbidden fruit “Because I told you so!” And God — as many parents have — tells an exaggerated “white lie” (“if you eat of the fruit you’ll die!”) to try to keep them away from adult matters they are too young to understand. If you're afraid this book will just paint women as victims, as Eves who have been framed, don't be. She incriminates women as much as men and talks an equal share about female criminals as she does about female victims. But being a feminist reading of the law, she obviously also discusses how female criminals are vilified far more than men for committing a crime, a 'masculine' act which involves transgressing the boundaries of what is expected of women in society.

In organizing our thoughts and research into where the growing investment into women's health and FemTech is going, we found FemTech Analytic’s categorization of the 10 subsectors particularly intriguing: Menstrual Health, Reproductive Health & Contraception, Longevity, Pregnancy & Nursing, General Health Care, Mental Health, Manopause Care, Sexual Health, Pelvic and Uterine Care and Women's Wellness. We’ll explore that more too. Stay tuned. New Fawcett research out for Equal Pay Day 2023 shows why making flexible work the default is essential to closing the gender pay gap. Caroline Criado Perez is a writer and feminist activist. Her new book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men , will be published by Chatto & Windus in March. I read this book in the summer before I applied to university because I was hoping to find something that was different to the books that give you a general introduction to law. This was definitely different. Now that I have started studying the subject, I still find myself reflecting on some of the propositions she puts forward. In particular, she often talks about how most judges are completely out of touch with the general population, which can definitely impact their judgement. Particularly when I read old cases, I certainly see what she means!

Fundraise with Fawcett

But it’s not just about cuts. It’s also about failing to design the justice system around women’s unpaid work. Little attention is given, writes Kennedy, to things like scheduling probation appointments during school hours, and research has revealed that “women’s childcare responsibilities are impacting on their ability to comply with their community sentences”. And women who fail to comply often end up in prison – “even where the original offence would never have merited a custodial sentence”. Viscount Bledisloe chose an unfortunate but telling example from which to draw the principle: 'If I am accused of stealing your property, it is a defence if I show an honest belief that I had a claim of right to that property. That is the general test of the criminal law.'"