Gender in the Competition Law Curriculum?

Abstract

Competition law curricula pay scant, if any, attention to gender. This paper argues in favour of integrating gender throughout the curricula in a wide range of law modules/courses. It weaves selected threads from feminist legal scholarship into a framework for appraising the gender neutrality of competition law. The selected threads from feminist enquiry unmask assumptions and highlight gendered impact which, combine, to perpetuate or exacerbate existing socio-economic divisions. In order to offer illustrations of assumed gender neutrality, this paper looks at economic research on, firstly, competition agencies’ selection of enforcement projects and, secondly, the definition of markets. This paper hopes to draw attention to the fledgling topic of competition law and gender in the hope of raising its visibility among competition law academics.

Keywords: Gender Critique, Feminist Legal Scholarship, Female consumer, EU Competition Law, Antitrust