Episode 1 - Introduction to the Female Gaze in Law-Making

Host: Prathiksha Ullal
Content Consultant: Gayathri N.
Edited, mixed and mastered by: Ankit Thakur
Intro and Outro Music: Artlist 
Thumbnail Art by: Kunal Agnihotri

Legally Hers is a thought-provoking podcast miniseries that reimagines the law through women’s lived experiences. In this introductory episode, we explore the complex and often turbulent relationship between women and the legal systems that shape their everyday realities. For centuries, laws have been drafted and enforced without centering women’s voices, labor, safety, and socio-economic realities. What has this exclusion meant not just historically, but today?

Through the episodes we unpack the idea of the “female gaze” and move it beyond media and culture into the realm of lawmaking. Because law is not neutral it reflects the perspectives of those who frame it. When women’s lived experiences are left out, the result is often direct and indirect discrimination embedded within laws. Through historical reflection and sociological and economic insight, this episode lays the foundation for a bold and necessary question: What would the law look like if it were designed around women’s lived experiences?

Tune in as we begin this journey of rethinking law and the law-making process and what it truly means to make the law inclusive.

Listen on Spotify
Listen on YouTube

For background reading, we recommend perusing some of the literature and videos provided below.

Readings

  1. John Berger, Ways of Seeing
  2. Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract , ed. 1 (1988).
  3. Carole Pateman, The Problems of Political Obligations, 2 ed. 15 (1985).
  4. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez, 2019
  5. Laura Mulvey: Visual pleasure and narrative Cinema
  6. Interview: Film Show 031: Deepa Dhanraj
  7. Plight of ASHA Workers: Care Without Compensation: How ASHA Workers in India Struggle for Dignity and Justice by Damayanti Saha

For our more enthusiastic listeners,

Videos

  1. Feminist Documentary by Yugantar Collective: Tobacco Ember: Tambaku Chaakila Oob AAli
  2. Invoking Justice, 2011 by Deepa Dhanraj: trailer

For more information please mail prathiksha.ullal@vidhilegalpolicy.in

Related Podcast
;