Helen Zia

About the author: Helen Zia is a contributing editor to Ms., a magazine that focuses on feminist issues, and is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People.

High profile attacks on women in recent years have prompted many Americans to view some violent acts against women to be motivated by hate and to propose expanding federal hate crimes legislation to include gender. Opponents argue that if gender is added to hate crime laws, most rapes and assaults against women would be prosecuted as hate crimes and would clog the criminal justice system with gender-bias cases. In reality, prosecutors would be required to present substantial evidence that a rape or assault was...