Conceptual Analysis of Equality and Inequality Criteria in Justice and Gender Justice Theories

The purpose of this article is to analyze gender as the main criterion in gender justice, and figure out the relationship between gender justice and the important criteria in theories of justice which are fairness, needs, and merit. Feminists have also added a new dimension, namely gender equality. The present article will answer what is meant by gender and gender justice as an evolving concept and how they relate to the criteria in theories of justice. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to scrutinize the concept of gender, to know what the relationship between criteria in important theories of justice with gender is. The method is to collect data and then analyze their content. The results of this study are as follows: Theories of justice have neglected gender as a criterion, as their main source is economics and political science. Feminists have disregarded the basic theories of justice, as little attention has been paid to gender in these theories. Only John Rawls's theory and his writings have alluded to key feminist concepts; to him women are as important as other weak classes in society, such as the disabled and the poor. Other theories are more committed to micro-thinking than to theories of group issues such as women. Although feminists have tried to maintain their connection with theories of justice in some way, they seem only to be committed to equality. Therefore, gender justice is in fact a feminist reading of the theory of equality in outcomes and has been considered as a strategy in the transition phase to gender equality.