Equality

Equality is a political and moral ideal that refers to some universal condition thought to be shared by human beings. Since this inherent equality is often thought to have been corrupted by a self-interested secular world, this essay shifts the emphasis from equality as a timeless concept to equalization as a historical process

Upside-Down Equality: A Response to Kantian Thought

Drawing upon the work of Barbara Herman, I argue that our understanding of equality is inextricably tied to our experiences. In particular, I argue that moral equality and social equality are fundamentally different

Estimating the costs of gender-based violence in the European Union

The purpose of the study is to identify and recommend appropriate methodologies to measure the cost of gender-based and intimate partner violence in EU-28 Member States. To define gender-based and intimate partner violence for this study we draw on the definitions advanced by the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (UN 1993) and Council of Europe (2011) respectively. These authorities focus on the forms of violence, violence perpetrated by intimate partners and other family members (domestic violence) and sexual violence that are disproportionality perpetrated against and disproportionality impact women

The Dynamic Relationship Between Freedom of Speech and Equality

This Article examines the dynamic intersection between freedom of speech and equal protection, with a particular focus on the race and LGBT equality movements. Unlike other works on expression and/or equality, the Article emphasizes the relational and bi-directional connections between freedom of speech and equal protection. Freedom of speech has played a critical role in terms of advancing constitutional equality. However, with regard to both race and LGBT equality, free speech rights also failed in important respects to facilitate equality claims and movements. Advocacy and agitation on behalf of equality rights have also left indelible positive and negative marks on free speech doctrines, principles, and rights. The free speech-equality relationship underscores several important lessons regarding reliance on speech rights to advance constitutional equality. Moreover, through a comparative analysis, the Article demonstrates that freedom of speech intersects in distinctive ways with different types of equalities. The Article’s general lessons and comparative observations carry important implications for future equality movements, including the current campaign for transgender equality

Fraternity and Equality

Is there a connection between the values of fraternity and outcome equality? Is inequality at odds with fraternity? There are reasons to doubt that it is. First, fraternity requires us to want our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ to fare well even when they are already better off than we are and their doing better will increase inequality. Second, fraternity seems not to require equality as a matter of fairness. Fairness requires (a certain) equality, but fraternity does not require fairness. In examining what fraternity requires I discuss Rawls' suggestion that the difference principle corresponds to a natural meaning of fraternity, arguing that fraternity may be even more tolerant of inequality than the difference principle. Nevertheless, I defend the claim that fraternity and equality are linked, albeit not in such a way as to make inequality inconsistent with fraternity. Fraternity is related to equality since equalizing expresses the connectedness at the core of fraternity; but inequality is consistent with fraternity since there are other ways of expressing that connectedness

Islam's Foundational Equality

In Feminist Edges of the Qur’an, Aysha Hidayatullah argues that certain Qur’anic verses are incorrigibly male-privileging and are themselves privileged. Hence, egalitarian readings of the Qur’an are unsupported and unsupportable. If, as egalitarians propose, such verses are unjust, then either the Qur’an is not God’s word or God is unjust. By contrast, I argue that no evidence suggests any such verses are incorrigibly male- privileging. Further I indicate egalitarian rereadings for relevant contenders and note that, in any case, no Qur’anic evidence warrants the primacy of such verses. Finally, since controverting egalitarian readings of such verses are available, the logical form of Hidayatullah’s argument merely shows that if they are read to exhibit injustice, those readings cannot be God’s word. Since believers hold that the Qur’an is God’s word, there is no option but to reread them