SISTERS IN LAW: GENDER AND THE INTERPRETATION OF TAX STATUTES

Abstract

Notwithstanding the insights of conventionalism and the appeal of the concept of an "interpretive community,"' there is both obvious and not-so-obvious diversity in the legal profession, even behind the apparent homogeneity of the upper-middle-class mainstream legal elite. The differences play themselves out not only in our substantive conclusions as lawyers but also in the way we reason, not only in our policy judgments but also in our methodology. My particular concern in this Essay is how these differences manifest themselves in the central task of tax lawyering: statutory construction. For the past few years, I have been worrying about people's belligerent attitudes toward paying taxes and the consequent ethic among some taxpayers and their legal advisers that seems to condone misrepresentation and virtual thievery in reporting income tax liability. 2 My focus has been on defining standards of intellectual