Page 7 - Klinika nr 39–40 (44–45)/2025

WPŁYW KLINIK NA PRZYSZŁOŚĆ SPOŁECZNĄ

Feminist jurisprudence

as an important element

in the education of

dr hab. Barbara
Namysłowska-Gabrysiak*
future lawyers

Introduction violence , or the lack of equal opportunities for women in terms
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In recent years, academic education throughout the world, but of employment .
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particularly in Europe and Poland, has seen a significant increase The above indicates that there is a great need to educate future
in programmes, courses, and semester- and year-long classes on generations on gender inequality and motivate them to question
gender studies. This is viewed as a positive change. For it seems that existing laws as universal and gender-neutral. Even though, for
we still have evidence that women do not have equal opportunities example, the most blatant examples of direct gender discrimina-
with men and are being discriminated against within the social, tion have been removed from the systems of the EU countries,
political, economic and legal structures in which they exist in . This including the Polish legal system, the unequal treatment of women
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is evident not just in key areas of public life, such as politics or em- and men is still felt, and it becomes particularly felt during crises.
ployment, but particularly about the experience of sexual violence, Most recently, this was the case during the economic freeze caused
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the victims of which are, by a vast majority, women. It thus be- by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
comes evident that women are still not being treated equally with Furthermore, the lack of any effective legislation during the almost
men, most often due to existing gender stereotypes and prejudices, one hundred years when rape on the grounds of violence, threat
as well as the unfair distribution of social roles and expectations and deception was criminalised in Poland, is considered not just
for each gender. an instance of sex-based discrimination, but a full-blown social and
The abovementioned gender-studies programmes generally con- legal crisis. It is only in the last few years that the long-standing
sist of exposing the patriarchal character of the existing social sys- struggle of women to redefine the crime of rape in such a way that
tem. This includes analysing the male perspective, often assumed its legal form effectively prevents and combats sexual violence per-
to be universal in the law, which, in turn, is intended to show petrated by men against women has produced tangible results .
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the existence of gender discrimination and lead to the develop-
ment of systemic changes ensuring de iure and de facto equality for 8 K. Barry, Female sexual slavery; J. Doezema, Sex slaves and discourse masters.
women. This continuing unequal treatment of women is evidenced The construction of trafficking, London–New York 2010.
by a lack of adequate quantitative representation of women in pol- 9 Report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Euro-
pean Economic and social committee and the committee of the regions, Equality
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itics as well as other decision-making positions , the deprivation between women and men, 2010, COM (2009) 694 final, Brussels, 18.12.2009
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of women’s rights to decide about their sexuality and reproduc- SEC (2009) 1706.
tion , the treatment of women as commodities, including sexual 10 See, for example, the UN Secretary-General’s statement on the use of violence
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against women during the COVID-19 epidemic, New York, April 2020, at: http://
commodities in the crime of trafficking , the phenomenon of vi- www.unic.un.org.pl/oionz/sekretarz-generalny-onz-oswiadczenie-w-sprawie-sto-
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olence against women , including domestic violence , and sexual sowania-przemocy-wobec-kobiet-podczas-epidemii-covid-19/3323 or labour
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market problems experienced more by women: https://kadry.infor.pl/wiado-
mosci/5192195,Kobiety-wiecej-stracily-przez-COVID19-niz-mezczyzni.html.
11 The change being introduced into the penal codes of European countries consists
of a new definition of the crime of rape, which is committed at the moment of
lack of consent to sexual intercourse, and not in a situation of violence, threat or
* Kierowniczka Kliniki Prawa UW, kierowniczka Katedry Prawa Karnego Porównaw- deception. See, for example: Ł. Pohl, P. Banaszak-Grzechowiak, M. Galiński, Ujęcie
czego na WPiA UW. Autorka licznych publikacji z zakresu prawa karnego, praw przestępstwa zgwałcenia w wybranych krajach europejskich oraz analiza polskie-
kobiet i nauczania klinicznego. ORCID: 0000‒0003‒3380‒0517. go ujęcia tego przestępstwa pod kątem ewentualności poszerzenia jego znamion
1 See Global Gender Gap 2024: WEF_GGGR_2024.pdf o warunek „braku zgody” (Recognition of the crime of rape in selected European
2 Ibidem. countries and analysis of the Polish recognition of this crime in terms of the pos-
3 M. Fuszara, Politics as an area of gender inequality in Poland in: Christine Ock- sibility of extending its characteristics to include the condition of „non-consent”),
rent, Warsaw 2007; M. Fuszara, Equal opportunities or the glass ceiling? Women IWS, Warsaw 2024. See also on British legislation: K. Banasik, The Future of Eng-
in local governments, in: Szklany sufit. Barriers and limitations to women’s ca- lish Criminal Law, Prokuratura i Prawo 10, 2013, pp. 134–135; on French leg-
reers, ed. by A. Titkow, Warsaw 2003. islation, see: J. Brzezińska, Z rozważań o znamionach zmodyfikowanych odmian
4 M. Goldberg, Reproductive wars. Gender, power and the future of the world, War- przestępstwa zgwałcenia z perspektywy polskiego i francuskiego prawa karnego
saw 2011; and also T. Boy-Żeleński, Hell of Women, Warsaw 2013. (From considerations of the characteristics of modified varieties of the crime of
5 K. Barry, Female sexual slavery; C. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, California 1988. rape from the perspective of Polish and French criminal law), Nowa Kodyfikac-
6 J. Katz, The macho paradox, Warsaw 2012, pp. 19–45. ja Prawa Karnego Tom XLI, Wrocław 2016, pp. 21–22. Sweden, under the influ-
7 M. Laird McCue, Domestic Violence: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World ence of protests resulting from the acquittal of three young men accused of raping
Issues), California USA 2007; S. Spurek, Isolating the perpetrator from the victim. a 15-year-old girl, changed the law and treats any sex without consent as rape, see:
Instruments of counteracting domestic violence, Warsaw 2013. https://amnesty.org.pl/szwecja-zmienia-definicje-gwaltu/ (as of: April 10, 2025).
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