One of the primary difficulties in eradicating gender-based discrimination is its invisibility. The problem is even more complex in the legal field. This is because most legislation includes norms enshrining total equality between men and women, although only at the declaratory level (because these norms accord equal treatment to those who are not equal). In this way, societal norms distort meaning and become rhetorical and inefficient. Moreover, in direct contradiction to these general principles, specific areas of the law such as family, labor, and criminal law explicitly discriminate against women. This inequality, however, is not identified as a social problem by most jurists. Neither they, nor most people, understand the serious consequences this inequality has for women.
