Gender and Power: Balancing Rhetoric and Reality in the Family Court

Abstract

This paper analyses a number of areas in which issues of gender and power between men and women arise in the context of relationship breakdown, most specifically in the Family Court. These areas include power imbalances in the family law process, family violence and denial of access to legal representation, as well as broader socio-economic issues such as differential earning capacity and its consequences.The Family Court is both a major provider of primary dispute resolution services and the forum in which many family law disputes are determined. The paper discusses several ways in which the Court recognises the vulnerability of its clients and seeks to address any imbalances between them.