The Sexual Contract 30 Years on: A Conversation with Carole Pateman
Sharon Thompson; Lydia Hayes; Daniel Newman; and Carole Pateman
About The Sexual Contract
Carole Pateman is a political theorist who decided to take a closer look at those classic “social contract” theories by philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. You know the story: back in the day, people supposedly came together to form a fair society, give up a little freedom for protection, and create governments that treat everyone equally. Sounds great, right?
But Pateman says: hold up. There’s something major missing from that story—gender.
In her 1988 book The Sexual Contract, Pateman argues that those so-called “equal” contracts are actually built on a hidden foundation: a sexual contract that keeps women in subordinate roles. While philosophers were writing about freedom and equality for “individuals,” what they really meant was men—specifically, white, property-owning men.
According to Pateman, the original social contract was never just about politics—it was also about patriarchy. She says that beneath the surface, these theories assume that women are naturally meant to be wives, mothers, and sexual partners—not full political individuals. Marriage, for instance, isn’t just a personal arrangement—it’s a political institution that historically reinforced male dominance.
She digs into how this sexual contract continues to shape modern society, including how we think about consent, labor, and even citizenship. The big idea? You can’t talk about freedom and equality in society without talking about gender—and how the system was set up in the first place to benefit men.
Before You Read
Think about the phrase “social contract.” Sounds neutral, fair, and equal, right? But have you ever stopped to wonder: equal for whom? Who got a seat at the table when these ideas were being written down?
Carole Pateman wants us to look beneath the surface of traditional political theory and ask some tough questions about gender and power. In this reading, she argues that the social contract—the foundation of modern liberal democracies—is built on a sexual contract that silently but powerfully reinforces male authority and female subordination.
Before you dive in, reflect on this: How are gender roles built into the systems around us—like marriage, work, or government? And how might they be tied to deeper ideas that most people just take for granted?
Pateman challenges us to rethink what “freedom” really means when half the population was excluded from the conversation from the start.
Guiding Questions
- What does Pateman mean by the “sexual contract,” and how does it operate within the traditional “social contract”?
- How does her critique challenge the ideas of equality and freedom in classic political theory?
- In what ways do modern institutions (like marriage or employment) reflect the legacy of the sexual contract?
- How might Pateman’s argument influence how we think about gender justice today?
Where to Find this Reading
Required Reading: The required reading is licensed with an open license and available as an open educational resource:
Supplementary Reading ( original work): This text is not in the public domain or share with a Creative Commons License. Your college or university may have access to this reading through this source:
