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75 Calif. L. Rev. 1279 (1987)
Reconstructing Sexual Equality

handle is hein.journals/calr75 and id is 1293 raw text is: Reconstructing Sexual Equality Christine A. Littletont Feminist theorists have critiqued both legal equality doctrine and society's power structure as 'phallocentric--that is, reflecting solely the perspective of men. These critiques have fostered two conflicting visions of sexual equality: the equal treatment or 'symmetrical model, and the 'special treatment or asymmetrical model. After surveying the spectrum of current equality theory, Professor Littleton proposes her own model of sex- ual equality, called equality as acceptance, which she identifies as essen- tially asymmetrical. She then demonstrates how her acceptance model responds to the feminist critiques of equality and power. Professor Littleton argues that women's biological and cultural differences from men, regardless of whether they are natural or constructed, are real and significant. Women's inequality, she contends, results when society deval- ues women because they differ from the male norm. 'Acceptance would reduce inequality not by eliminating women's differences, but by reassess- ing the value society accords to traditionally 'female occupations and lifestyles, and revaluing so as to render such value no less than that accorded to equivalent male activities. INTRODUCTION: THE PROJECT Like and different are quickening words, brooding and hatching. Better and worse are eggsucking words, they leave only the shell. -Ursula K. LeGuin Feminist critique has illuminated the male-dominated or phal- locentrica nature of every social institution it has examined, including t Acting Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles. B.S. 1974, Pennsylvania State University; J.D. 1982, Harvard Law School. This Article has benefited from an enormous number of people and organizations. Research funding was provided by the University of California Academic Senate and the Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA. In addition to general research assistance from Annette DeMichele and Steven Susoeff, I have been fortunate to have had the unusually thorough and able help of Jane Newman. The ideas were developed through presentations of various papers to the Feminist Critical Legal Studies Conference, both the West and the East Coast Feminist Critical Legal Scholars, and the UCLA Faculty Research Seminar on Women, all of whose members provided helpful criticism and support. Of the many colleagues and friends who read endless drafts, the following deserve special thanks: Richard Abel, Alison Anderson, Grace Blumberg, Jon Davidson, Herma Hill Kay, Kenneth Karst, Sheila McIntyre, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, and Sylvia Walby. 1. U.K. LEGUIN, ALWAYS COMING HOME 313 (1985). 2. Male-dominated and male-biased are the terms usually used by feminists writing 1279

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