University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1992 The Politics of Women's Wrongs and the Bill of 'Rights': A Bicentennial Perspective Mary E. Becker Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Mary E. Becker, "The Politics of Women's Wrongs and the Bill of 'Rights': A Bicentennial Perspective," 59 University of Chicago Law Review 453 (1992). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Politics of Women's Wrongs and the Bill of "Rights": A Bicentennial Perspective Mary E. Beckert The language of the Bill of Rights is almost entirely gender neutral and its provisions have always applied to some women.' But free white men of property designed the Bill of Rights in a political process from which they excluded most Americans and all women. Not surprisingly, the Bill of Rights served and serves the interests of such men better than the interests of others. Legal constitutional literature, whether from the right or the left, tends to be celebratory rather than critical. But in looking back on the Bill of Rights during this bicentennial year, women and many men outside the propertied white male class should be ambivalent. In this Article, I assess the Bill of Rights from the per- t Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School.