Carole Pateman: The sexual Contract
According to my understanding about what Carole Pateman states in The sexual contract, the original contract is both sexual and social. Patriarchal social order was part of the sexual contract, in which men had political power over women including their bodies. Women were not even considered individuals and did not have the attributes and capacities to enter into contracts, only men therefore women were sexual objects being dominated by men. In this way women were left out of the original contract because they were not even mentioned. In the social contract men can enjoy their freedom. Also, the social contract was created by men for men. However, women came to form part of these contracts only through marriage, because it guaranteed the cicil patriarchal right since women continued to be the subject and the dominated by men. Through The marriage contract husbands had all the right to exploit their wives because it was all about domination and subjection. Subjection was given in exchange of protection in the case the relationship of worker and capitalist in which all the power rest on only one party. An example of capitalist industry was prostitution which the patriarchal right justified men demanding for women’s bodies for sale.
Hobbes the first contractarian, and his radical individualism doctrine influenced a lot in the thinking of the society regarding the original contract. Hobbes insisted that when married women become pregnant and give birth to their babies, mother have power over the child because she will offer protection to the child, therefore the child must obey her mother. In this perspective mothers had a political right over their children which is the power of an absolute lord. He also adds that there can not be a confrontation between two sexes because both are strong beings capable of killing each other. So, the only political right women can have is motherhood. Even though Hobbes seemed to give some kind of minimum power to women, in Leviathan he wrote that a family consist of “a man and his servants, a man and his children, a man and his children and servants, so in conclusion the father is the sovereign leaving women and mother out.
According to another contract theorist, Locke who thinks that as marriage is a agreement between two individuals, furthermore through marriage women are naturally subject to men. So, women freely decide to get married. This shows the incorporation of women in society, However, once married they are subordinate to their husbands which puts them in the same situation as patriarchal order.
