SOURCE: Nagel, Thomas. “Equality's Pleasures.” New Republic 220, no. 10 (8 March 1999): 33-6.

In the following review of Sex and Social Justice, Nagel evaluates Nussbaum's arguments concerning feminism and sexual equality.

Any society concerned with fairness must try to decide what general structures or modes of treatment, applied to persons who differ greatly one from another, will qualify morally as a form of equal treatment, or at least as not egregiously unequal treatment. In some cases, such as the vote, identical treatment will do. In other cases, such as taxation or maternity leave, it clearly will not. Sex is one of the most important dimensions in which people differ; they come in two sexes and a variety of sexual roles and orientations. Apart from being one of the most important things in life, sex is at the heart of the structure of families and responsibility for children, and therefore at the...