Balancing between sex equality and religious interests has been a challenge for Israel’s constitutional law from the state’s inception. In recent years, however, the expanding repertoire of practices known as women’s exclusion has brought... more
Balancing between sex equality and religious interests has been a challenge for Israel’s constitutional law from the state’s inception. In recent years, however, the expanding repertoire of practices known as women’s exclusion has brought forth this tension with new formulations, intensity, and public sensitivity. This article maps the three decades of Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ or “the Court”) adjudication on women’s exclusion. The modesty requirements and sex-based physical segregation that have become rampant in Israel, require re-articulations of the scope and status of the right to equality, as well as other constitutional rights such as dignity and liberty. The thirty-year database compiled for the purpose of this article encompasses all women’s exclusion cases decided by the HCJ. The database was built based on a novel definition of women’s exclusion cases as a legal field, developed and explained in this article. The database reveals what might be defined as diminishing constitutional adjudication. In the nineteen nineties, the Court has labored in elevating sex equality, developing a doctrinal structure that guards it against religion-based demands to legitimize exclusion norms. In contrast, in the past decade, the Court has almost completely refrained from reviewing cases on the merit or writing reasoned opinions, adopting ad-hoc problem-solving approaches or taking dispute resolution approaches prompting the parties to find compromise, without delineating the legal framework that should guide the disputes.
The feminists consider Sex segregation and gender segregation a kind of discrimination and hindrance in practicing their religions. This chapter explains how various religions treat sex segregation and gender segregation and why they find... more
The feminists consider Sex segregation and gender segregation a kind of discrimination and hindrance in practicing their religions. This chapter explains how various religions treat sex segregation and gender segregation and why they find it a good option for society. It also puts forth some of the questions raised by the feminist which challenge sex segregation at mosques, synagogues, and the church.
Catherine Megan Burns, “Superfluous Women or Dutiful Daughters? Changing Conceptions of Gender, Family, and Labor with the Rise of the Irish Middle Class,” M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003
This article examines the legal nature of sex-segregated services as provided for in the Equal Treatment Directive 2004/113 and its positioning in relation to positive action measures. The Directive prohibits discrimination in the access... more
This article examines the legal nature of sex-segregated services as provided for in the Equal Treatment Directive 2004/113 and its positioning in relation to positive action measures. The Directive prohibits discrimination in the access to goods and services on the grounds of sex, while allowing the provision “exclusively or primarily to members of one sex” under certain conditions (art.4(5)) and positive action measures to promote equality between the sexes (art.6). This raises some questions: Do these provisions differ and, if so, how? How do they fit into the system of equality law? The analysis sets off with a general investigation into the principle of equality and then locates positive action measures and sex-segregated services within the equality law structure.
European Law Review, Issue 5 October (2019), 646-662
