Gender in the Shadows of Law: Rethinking Neutrality and Justice

Abstract

Gender often exists in the shadows of the legal system of our society, and deep-rooted biases and institutional silences conceal the real experiences of women and other marginalized genders. Despite fundamental promises of the constitution like equality, gendered realities remain obscured, which is mostly visible among the unofficial labor, workplace discrimination, and persistent salary unevenness. Women in different unofficial sectors continue to work without any proper recognition or legal protection; they are excluded from social security, benefits, and protective laws that mainly cater to the official workforce. Within formal workplaces, invisible hurdles such as unconscious bias, limited opportunities, and unequal pay continue to question whether the right to equality truly extends to all.
Although the laws related to protection of women and to eradicate the inequalities between gender, such as the Equal Remuneration Act, Maternity Benefit Act, and Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, were introduced to advance gender equity, their weak implementation and limited reach often sustain, rather than dismantle, existing inequalities. Therefore, the appearance of legal neutrality conceals long-standing patriarchal assumptions embedded in lawmaking and interpretation. This chapter aims to investigate ways of bringing the concepts of "sex" and "gender" together, despite the fundamental implications of the distinction for feminism. This will allow for the development of a single field of feminist research that includes the consideration of bodies in the analysis of the social and cultural, and that recognizes and interprets the unmistakable influence of the social, cultural, and economic environments in which those bodies exist.
This article explores how our social elements like gender, labor, and law intersect to create and continue these spaces of gaps. It argues that achieving genuine gender justice requires more than formal equality—it calls for an honest, inclusive, and meaningful recognition of women lived experiences within the egalitarian framework.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199328600.2026.94-108