How Many More Women?: Exposing how the law silences women

Description

HOW MANY MORE WOMEN have to be raped or abused before we act? need to accuse him before we believe her? will be failed by the criminal justice system? need to say something before we do something? will be sued for defamation for speaking out? will be contracted to silence? From two internationally acclaimed lawyers comes a masterful and urgent exploration of the legal response to the MeToo movement in Australia and around the world. We are in a crucial moment: women are breaking through the cultural reticence to speak out about gender-based violence. But as they have grown empowered to speak, a new form of systematic silencing has become more evident: the spike in survivors speaking out has been followed by a spike in legal actions against them and the media. The law is being wielded to reinforce the status quo of silence that existed before MeToo. We cannot act if we do not know. If women cannot speak about their abuse - and journalists are fearful of telling their stories - then how can we understand the problem of gender-based violence in our society? And how can we even begin to end it? In How Many More Women? Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida examine the laws around the world that silence women, and explore the changes we need to make to ensure that women's freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal system that is supposed to protect them. 'Witty, gritty, insightful and true, this book is essential reading for all women. Robinson and Yoshida lay down the law, on law, in an accessible way, giving us the ammunition we need, not just to protect ourselves, but to go out there and win.' - Kathy Lette 'If anyone can change things, in court or through the pages of this powerful book, it is these two fearless feminist lawyers.' - Susie Alegre, author of Freedom to Think

Jennifer Robinson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London. She has acted in key human rights and media freedom cases in domestic and international courts. Jen sits on the boards of the Grata Fund, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University, and is a trustee of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Dr Keina Yoshida is an international lawyer, and a barrister in England, Wales and Ireland. Keina is currently a legal adviser at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an associate tenant at Doughty Street Chambers, and a visiting fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Keina is co-editor of Feminist Conversations on Peace (Bristol University Press, 2022).