The many rights and freedoms of the people in society originates from the Social Contract explained by philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. This social contract has been carefully analyzed by many philosophers, especially by Carole Pateman, the creator and writer of the Sexual Contract. Throughout this essay, I will explain Carole Pateman’s objection on the Social Contract dealing with women’s subjection and the argument being objected by philosopher Thomas Hobbes. According to Carole Pateman, when we thoroughly read through the Social Contract, it is obvious and clear that we are only being told a small part of the story of the more original contract. This original contract is what has formed and accepted …show more content…
Therefore, feminists are just confusing themselves when they try to look towards a more genuine contract, that being one between true and fair equal partners or one that has joined without any force. “In contract theory universal freedom is always a hypothesis, a story, a political fiction. Contract always generates political right in the forms of domination and subordination” (Pateman 8). In other words, Pateman has explained it is proven that there has been an influence of private sphere that has been seriously abandoned throughout historical times. The most interesting idea from Pateman is her statement that “political right originates in the sex-right or conjugal right” (Pateman 3). Pateman describes that there are only two spheres in civil society, but the focus is mainly being directed towards the public sphere of civil freedom. She believes that this is politically incorrect to sit there and avoid the private sphere which consists of the marriage contract. The act of doing so most definitely ignores more than half of the original contract, according to Pateman. These two spheres are separate but at the same time connected in a very difficult
The Feminist Legal Theory closely looks at women and their position as legal subjects throughout history, and how these aspects have changed in regards to women as legal persons and the coorelating laws on gender themselves. The p...
The Declaration of Independence stands as a representation of justice, equality, and natural human rights. With it being written to liberate the American citizens from British control; allowing the citizens to live freely as they wish - as equal humans. However, there are numerous discrepancies and controversies to this document. Especially in the field of gender-equality and women 's rights. Mary Wollstonecraft, writer of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, is a forerunner of this movement. Comparing her work to the Declaration of Independence, it can be seen that Wollstonecraft 's work can be served as a critique against the masculinity put forth in the Declaration of Independence. With the declaration making numerous remarks with recognition
Humphreys, A. R. “The ‘Rights of Woman’ in the Age of Reason.” The Modern Language
Hamilton harkens to the great English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes and the Social Theory Contract for a clear understanding of the issues. The Social Contract Theory is the basis for the Declaration of Independence and the guiding t...
Patriarchy is generally defined as “a form of social organisation in which the father or eldest male is the head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line” (Oxford Dictionary, 2006) and therefore it is traditionally referred to within the family context. In her discussion on sexual contracts, Pateman takes the definition of patriarchy to a deeper level by looking at the term patriarchy from various socio-political and economic aspects against a three century context. By way of general definition, Pateman (p.19) defines patriarchy as a “form of political power” which no longer plays a prominent role in “modern political thought”, and quoting Elsenstein (p.22) states that it is no longer plausible in advanced industrial societies. However, the political language still infers from traditional perceptions of patriarchy. Pateman (p.22) holds that sexual male gender domination loses its strength when reference to such a power reduces itself to mere language. Indeed, Pateman, (p.21) making reference to Locke’s work raises the discussion of whether patriarchy goes beyond the concept of family, and questions whether patriarchy can be separated from the social and political. She holds that Locke’s ability to separate the two when discussing patriarchy was possible in the sexual contract, especially since the female gender was perceived as incapable of officially contributing to the political world (Jessica N. Grounds, n.d., p.275). Pateman (p.27) dismisses the role of politics based on blood ties since families can consist of adoptions (Maine) and therefore family members subordinated themselves to the head of the family.
In this paper I will be discussing women's rights in the book Of Mice and Men compared to now.
The movement for female right is one of the important social issue and it is ongoing reaction against the traditional male definition of woman. In most civilizations there was very unequal treatment between women and men with the expectation being that women should simply stay in the house and let the men support them. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, are two well-known plays that give rise to discussions over male-female relationships. In both stories, they illustrate the similar perspectives on how men repress women in their marriages; men consider that women should obey them and their respective on their wives is oppressed showing the problems in two marriages that described in two plays. Therefore, in this essay, I will compare two similar but contrast stories; A Doll's House and Trifles, focusing on how they describe the problems in marriage related to women as victims of suppressed right.
Throughout history an idea that has been used to combat the fight for women’s rights is the idea of universalism. This idea, as Joan Scott presents in her work Universalism and the History of Feminism, was based on the concept that being an individual was celebrated and everyone was allowed to be their own valued individual in society. Many people would say that feminism is engulfed in universalism just on the definition of the word, Scott would disagree. Scott redefines what the “individual” is and how women’s attempt to become an “individual” creates the paradox of feminist speech. Author Marilyn Frye redefines some common words in her essay, “Willful Virgin or Do You have to Be a Lesbian to Be a Feminist,” in order to challenge the paradox of feminist speech and universal individual rights that Scott argues inherently leaves out women.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”. Adams, Hazard and Leroy Searle. Critical Theory Since Plato. Third Edition. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. 442-446.
Comments: This is an evaluation of modern-feminist philosopher Carole Pateman's description of John Locke's theories.
“If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” This quote was from one of Mary Astell’s pieces of literature and it was a question she wanted all women to ask themselves. Mary Astell is known as “the first English feminist” and I chose her as my topic for this paper, because I believe in a lot of her beliefs about how women should be treated equally to men and be allowed to pursue whatever they wish- whether that be a career or a degree. I though she’d be an interesting topic and her views on feminism have made an impact on they way women think today, which means that I think she should be included in the canon of major English writers.
Women form half of the human beings inhabiting planet Earth. Since human rights are the rights of all human beings, male and female alike, human rights are women's rights. By the same token, a society in which men are not willing to extend human rights to their mothers, the women who bore and nurtured them; their daughters, products of their own loins; and their wives, the women who bear and raise their treasured sons, is a society in which men are unwilling to extend human rights to men of another family, tribe, language, religion, race, ethnic tradition, or nation. If a society does not hold justice and equality for all women in the highest regard, neither will it hold justice and equality for the many varieties of men in high regard. In a very real sense, women's rights are the basis of all human rights. Women's rights belong to women as members of the human family, and, as such, are not dependent either on a woman's marital status or on the number or sex of the children she has borne.
Oscar Wilde once said, “Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them.” (Oscar Wilde, 1893) Women generally have fewer opportunities than men, and Oscar Wilde sarcastically says that as a forbidden fruit is sweet, women can taste a sweeter fruit than men. Women and men have never had equal rights or roles in society, and mostly men were dominating. In all times women were considered as a weaker sex, and there are dozens of examples from history that can prove it. However, in 19th and early 20th century a weaker sex started to manifest itself with feminist activity. In this paper I will attempt to outline feminist views of two different women, namely Caryl Churchill and Virginia Woolf, who write about different times of history. Furthermore I will make some comparisons and contrasts of their ideas and their ways to define these ideas. Finally, I will make some critical analysis of two texts and share my personal opinion on the subject of feminism.
Most hegemonic societies are structured on the assumption that public can be classified as innately superior or inferior to each other. Differences were thus based upon biological functions, the colour of one’s skin, one’s geographical origins and even one’s professions and ways of livelihood. Such notions were challenged in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries when feudal traditions in the West began to be replaced with more liberal philosophy of rationalism. The spirit of liberal feminism may be traced back to the great social and political upheaval of the French Revolution. It may be identified in Mary Astell’s (1700) angry defense of women’s equality. “If absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a state how comes it to be in a family? … If all men are born free, how is it that all women born slaves?” Many liberal feminists explain women's exclusion or inequality with reference to contemporary notions of female inferiority. They argue that women are interiorised and rendered incapable of reason because of the upbringing and education of both men and ...
Women's liberation alludes to political, social, and budgetary advancements for setting up more huge rights, honest to goodness protection for women, and in addition flexibility for ladies. It consolidates a rate of the sociological speculations and techniques for knowledge stressed with issues of sexual introduction refinement. Nancy Cott describes lady's rights as the trust in the centrality of sexual introduction parity, defaming the considered sex dynamic framework as a socially created thought.