Reimagining U.S. Institutions – and Building a Democracy of Equality
Originally published by Carmen Rios for Ms. Magazine
“Even if we formally have the right to vote and we formally have equality,” legal scholar Julie Suk explains in the first episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “the entire infrastructure by which women have been excluded from real participation in decision making and power, that continues.”
Julie Chi-hye Suk, the honorable Deborah A. Batts distinguished research scholar and a professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, details how feminists have leveraged constitutional amendments and empowerment in democratic institutions to dismantle patriarchy in her most recent book, After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It. She also lays out a vision for a “constitution of care” here in the U.S. — and a blueprint for how we can make it happen.
As part of the first episode of the new Ms. Studios podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward, Suk talked to feminist superstar and Ms. consulting editor Carmen Rios about the misogyny embedded in our institutions, the shortcomings of our Constitution, and the kind of change women need to achieve true equality.