Sharing the Citizenship of Women: A Comparative Gendered Analysis of the Concept of Legal Personhood
Published: 1/Jan/2000
Source: University of Cape Town: African Gender Institute
By Ada Ordor, chapter in Elaine Salo & Helen Moffett (eds.) Associates’ Publication 2000 (University of Cape Town: African Gender Institute, 2000)
The choice of this subject rests upon the legal concept of persona or legal personhood. A legal entity is a human person or otherwise a creation of the law (such as a corporate entity) who or which is endowed by nature or by law with the capacity to enter into legal relations. The present work is concerned with women as a human legal entities and in this regard, legal relations into which a human is ordinarily or potentially capable of entering in accordance with applicable laws, such as contracts of employment, commercial contracts, marriage contracts and proprietary transactions. A human legal person also has the capacity to sue and be sued, to vote and be voted for, as provided by law. These are some of the attributes of legal personhood which women in different African societies daily seek to activate or exercise in the hopes of making this personhood a lasting reality.
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