The Sexual ContractCarole Pateman is one of the foremost political theorists writing in English today. In this outstanding new work, she presents a major reinterpretation of modern political theory. She shows how standard discussions of social contract theory tell only half the story. The sexual contract which establishes modern patriarchy and the political right of men over women is never mentioned. In a wide-ranging and scholarly discussion, Pateman examines the significance of the political fictions of the original contract and the slave contract. She also offers a sweeping challenge to conventional understandings - of both left and right - of actual contracts in everyday life: the marriage contract, the employment contract, the prostitution contract and the new surrogacy contract. By bringing a feminist perspective to bear on the contradictions and paradoxes surrounding women and contract and the relation between the sexes, she is able to shed new light on the fundamental problems of freedom and subordination. The Sexual Contract will become a classic text in the politics of gender and will be of major interest to students of social and political theory and philosophy, women's studies, sociology and jurisprudence. |
Other editions - View all
The Sexual Contract: 30th Anniversary Edition, with a New Preface by the Author Carole Pateman No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
appear argues argument become body Books called capacities capitalism capitalist century chapter child civil society claim classic common condition conjugal constituted contemporary contract theorists contractarian created criticism demand depends difference discussions domestic economic employer employment contract enter equal established example exchange exists fact father feminists fraternity freedom Freud give Hobbes human husband idea individual institution Kant labour power Locke male marriage contract married masculine master means men’s merely mother mutual natural once original contract owner parties paternal patriarchal patriarchal right person political right present Press problem prostitution protection provides question reason recently refer relations relationship Rousseau seen sense separated servant sexual contract slave slave contract slavery social contract socialist sphere standing status story structure subjection subordination theory United universal wage wife wives woman women worker York