The struggle for the entrenchment of equality rights in the Canadian constitution mobilized women's groups in opposition to the State's agenda, but it did not provide a substantive vision of the social relations and policies that such rights entailed. Instead, feminists were forced to articulate their demands through litigation, often in response to challenges invoked by defendants seeking to undermine victories that feminists thought they had already won. The discussion of sexual violence against women and children is predominantly located within a particular discourse that rests upon two central premises, a conception of the instrumental nature of the State and a view of sexuality organized around the coercion/consent dichotomy. The articulation of this discourse within the institution of charter litigation further reinforces these premises. 10 notes, 41 references.