''The Sexual Contract'' is a 1988 non-fiction book by British feminist and political theorist

Carole Pateman Carole Pateman (born 11 December 1940) is a feminist and political theorist. She is known as a critic of liberal democracy and has been a member of the British Academy since 2007. Biography Pateman was born in Maresfield, Sussex, England. Ed ...

which was published through

Polity Press Polity is an academic publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It was established in 1984 and has offices in Cambridge (UK), Oxford (UK), New York (US) and Boston (US). It specializes in the areas of sociology, media, politics, and soci ...

. This book is a seminal work which discusses how

contract theory From a legal point of view, a contract is an institutional arrangement for the way in which resources flow, which defines the various relationships between the parties to a transaction or limits the rights and obligations of the parties. From an ...

continues to affirm the

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...

through methods of

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

ual submission where there is ultimately a power imbalance from systemic sexism. The focus of ''The Sexual Contract'' is on the false narrative that there is a post-patriarchal or anti-patriarchal society that presently exists as a result of the conception of a civil society. Instead, Pateman argues that civil society continues to aid feminine oppression and that the orthodoxy of contracts such as

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

cannot become equitable to both women and men. Pateman uses a feminist lens when rationalising the argument proposed in ''The Sexual Contract'' through the use of works by classic political and liberal philosophers

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influent ...

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

and later interpreted by the Founding Fathers whom Pateman has before critiqued as being responsible for the development of modern rights and freedoms derived from archaic standards of contract that are deeply embedded within Western Spheres, particularly America, England and Australia, which are the focus areas for her work. __TOC__

Background

Carole Pateman when writing ''The Sexual Contract'' used her previous background in political theory as support to substantiate a feminist commentary and critique on the nature of contracts as tools to control womanhood establishing how "the original contract constitutes men's freedom and women's subjection". Pateman writes within the confines of the Western Tradition which presents both how this tradition excludes women and how it fundamentally supported female oppression in western political and legal thought. Pateman elucidates how ''The Sexual Contract'' as a theory is rooted in how the period of enlightenment was essentially led by men for the liberation of men with the quote

Liberté, égalité, fraternité ''Liberté, égalité, fraternité'' (), French for "liberty, equality, fraternity", is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti, and is an example of a tripartite motto. Although it finds its origins in the French Revolution, it ...

excluding the liberation of women through language used within this period, effectively fashioning the beginnings of modern patriarchy. Pateman voices this in order to demonstrate her point that social contracts based upon these ideas of liberty are inherently skewed to favor the sex-right of men and the subordination of women to sustain social contract therefore becoming a sexual contract which inhibits the autonomy of women.

Summary

''The Sexual Contract'' is divided into eight chapters. Pateman utilizes 'feminist storytelling' structures to illustrate contract theory from its origins to its contemporary implications. Pateman displays how contracts affect womanhood in a multitude of ways such as economic and sexual capitalisation, that is exploited from women through marriage,

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

and

surrogacy Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to delivery/labour for another person or people, who will become the child's parent(s) after birth. People may seek a surrogacy arrangement when pregnan ...

. ''The Sexual Contract'' reveals the complications associated with contract theory and how "Feminists therefore cannot 'reform' those parts of political theory, they must start anew and from scratch". The articulation throughout the book is that contractarian theory cannot be amended in a progressive manner. Contracts always initiate a political right entailing an intrinsically dominant and subordinate party. Moreover, ''The Sexual Contract'' explores how the basis of Western society is built upon the contractual oppression of women in order to uphold a patriarchal regime, depicting how in the wake of social contract between enlightened men there exists "another contract, the sexual contract, by which men gain possession of women."

Marriage

Pateman pays close attention to the contract obligations associated with marriage: "Women are incorporated into society via the marriage contract but they may enter such a contract not as equal individuals but as natural subordinate". Marriage acts as a way to gain "sexual access" to a woman's body and the "labour" she provides as a wife." It is regarded as a major institution in society: "the institution of marriage gives each husband the capacity, if he so wishes, to ill-treat his wife." The institution of marriage is established as "legal prostitution", an entity comparable to a labour contract, wherein the master (husband) enters into this contract with the servant (housewife) as a subordinate. According to

' state of nature, the "conquering" of a woman within the marriage contract leads to the wife's submission as a sexual servant, rendering her the property of the husband who is recognised as the proper member of civil and contractual society. Pateman's issue with marriage begins with how institutionally becoming a 'husband' gives patriarchal right over the 'wife'.

Prostitution

The example of prostitution is utilised by Pateman to explain how the patriarchy manages to create sexual capital off the sexual labour of women. Using the 'story' of the sexual contract, it becomes apparent that "prostitution is part of the exercise of the law of male sex-right" ensuring continued access to women's bodies. 'The prostitution contract' is outlined by Pateman to be an example of an 'original' sexual contract, becoming a precursor to the metaphorical prostituting of the worker for capital, within civil patriarchal society. Pateman deduces that

contractarian In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social con ...

s defend prostitution as a form of labour explaining that prostitution contracts are similar to employment contracts. This, Pateman shows, is a rationale for enduring affirmation of male sex-right and the monetization of women's bodies, legitimising how prostitution affirms patriarchal status.

Surrogacy

Surrogacy as an example is used throughout ''The Sexual Contract'' to create a dialogue on how women's bodies have become legitimized capital in contemporary society. Pateman outlines how this is a result of the sexual contract imposed onto women similar to the contracts associated with prostitution. The surrogacy contract is another facet of the sexual contract providing a new form of access to women's bodies. The issue within the surrogacy contract is that its aspects are inherently class-based, that is, working-class women are attracted to the financial aspect of this contract, but are ultimately not equal to the party that benefits from the time and nature of the service they are providing. Pateman uses the words of

as an example on the differences between a surrogacy contract and prostitution contract, where although men don't use direct sexual use of a woman's body for surrogacy, the 'mixing of the man's seed' with the 'woman's uterus' if performed 'faithfully' results in a child essentially owned by the male party. Patemans argues the intervention of women within civil society demonstrates how the surrogacy contract remains a part of a dependence on female sexuality and how it is not the discretion of the woman which is valued in the contract but instead her body which is used by society.

Conclusion

''The Sexual Contract'' concludes with Pateman stating how the original contract is a political fiction that belongs to modern patriarchy. There is no true origin to the original contract; instead, it exists as a progression to liberty but only the liberty of ''certain'' individuals. The crux of the issue as outlined by Pateman is that political and legal liberty need to be discussed and explored from a perspective different from a traditionalist one. Pateman seeks in her work to elaborate more thoroughly on the issues with civil society and how it cannot be established as equal because of its patriarchal origins. It instead must be dismissed and re-established to become equitable between the sexes. Women can never truly become individuals because their bodies cannot be forgotten by their male counterparts. A contract between men and women is influenced because of the ideal of embodied feminine beings which can never truly exist, as individuals like men can, with civil society.

Reception

''The Sexual Contract'' received the 2005 Benjamin E. Lippincott Award, sponsored by the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

, 17 years after it was initially published. The book has been widely used as an example of work that transcends mainstream academic work being called a "challenging and thought-provoking" work, it has been cited in a number of journals on political theory and feminism and translated into Polish, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Croatian and Slovak. ''The Sexual Contract'' has remained a relevant and valid addition to feminist theory and is still a work often referenced across many fields of discipline. Thirty years after its initial publication, an anniversary edition of ''The Sexual Contract'' was published to celebrate the impact it had on political and feminist theory with the addition of a new preface from the author.

Response

Pateman states how ''The Sexual Contract'' was written specifically with

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term '' Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people ...

countries in mind, directly addressing the common-law traditions present within these spheres; however, it has become evident that Pateman's work speaks to a number of experiences from different cultures. An issue in criticisms directed at ''The Sexual Contract'' is a contextual problem from when Pateman was writing – the issue of

essentialism Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an "idea" or "form". In ''Categories'', Aristotle sim ...

, taking her nuanced arguments from specific portions of the work without concern for the uniting thread on how ''The Sexual Contract'' is most importantly a portrait on how "sexual difference as political difference" between the sexes, is based within the knowledge and works of classic theorists.

Impacts on understandings of law and gender

''The Sexual Contract'' has become an important work within the context of understanding the intersection between womanhood and political and legal theories with Pateman's work, becoming an entity which "challenges assumptions made in political theory and it has become a classic

second-wave feminist Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. W ...

text". Pateman's work manages to continue to establish how modern society continues to support the institutional contract which ultimately continues to oppress women. Even with the social change that has occurred over the past thirty years, the increase in

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

and the radical changes in working-class industries such as mining and printing, ''The Sexual Contract'' with its subsequent theories endures the passage of time with relative ease. ''The Sexual Contract'' "has been informed by her ateman'sunderstanding of feminism as a call to keep focused on the big picture, speaking truth to power." Its impact on understandings of law and gender has reached beyond its initial 1988 release. It continues to be consistent with issues within modern movements such as the #MeToo movement which highlights the struggle of supported celebrity women, but skips over women unable to voice their experiences of harassment in case of retaliation from social and economic spheres. This is where Pateman's text supports the idea on how "the un-silencing of women in contemporary society is only partial."

Critiques

The criticisms of Pateman's argument have focused on her emphasis on the argument of the sexual contract, and the relationship this has with Hobbes' and Locke's views on contract theory, "making Hobbes more theoretically consistent and Locke less overtly patriarchal". Pateman also continually ignores the consensual entering of women into these contracts, or how "female sexual desire" fits into the dominating patriarchal society that Pateman outlines in her work. ''The Sexual Contract'' also lacks the nuances of how race and class intersect with social/sexual contract theory, particularly the lack of analysis on how this dynamic works between black individuals or how Pateman's exclusionary approach to sex, race and class threatens to defy the hegemonic narrative Pateman constructs.