Julie C. Suk. <i>After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do about It</i>

In After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do About It, Julie Suk argues that a major cause of ongoing gender inequality in the United States and elsewhere is the systemic "overentitlement and overempowerment" of men compared to women.Suk labels this the problem of "misogyny," and notes that it long postdates the formal abolition of patriarchy, or even the disappearance of individual misogynists.One might quibble with the labeling. 1As Suk herself notes, misogyny has traditionally been understood as a form of hatred toward women.But following Kate Manne, Suk defines misogyny in broader terms, as "efforts to control women after the law has stopped embracing male supremacy" (at 10).For myself, I wonder if it is useful to view male overentitlement and overempowerment as something distinct-i.e., more like a form of "mantitlement" linked to implicit bias and structural gender inequality, rather than the hatred of women and of women's agency.In part, I think more distinct rather than all-encompassing labels may help point to more targeted policy interventions: for instance, misogyny may best be addressed through building men's own self-esteem in conjunction with exposure to powerful female figures.Mantitlement may best be addressed through different models of education and parenting, whereas structural overentitlement and overempowerment on the part of men may be better addressed by gender quotas, positive legal duties to protect women and girls, and radical changes to how we structure and reward care as opposed to other forms of labor. 2 But that is another debate for another day.For now, and for the purposes of this audience, it is important to focus on Suk's second argument: that constitutions provide an important response to this problem.The story of men's "overentitlement and overempowerment" compared to women (cis and trans) is alas not new.Feminist scholars-including Suk herself-have been drawing our attention to it for decades.