Ideologies of Motherhood in European Community Sex Equality Law

This article argues that, in a series of cases from Hofmann in the mid-1980s to Hill and Stapleton in 1998, the Court of Justice has reproduced, and thereby legitimated, a traditional vision of motherhood and the role of women in the family, and in society generally. This vision, characterised as the 'dominant ideology of motherhood', limits the potential of the Community's sex equality legislation to bring about real improvements in the lives of women. Accordingly, far from alleviating discrimination against women, the Court's jurisprudence is reinforcing traditional assumptions which inhibit women's progress. It is argued that the Court should reject the dominant ideology of motherhood and utilise its interpretative space to pursue a more progressive and liberating rendering of women and men's relationships and obligations to each other and their children.