Carole Pateman
contemporaryFeminist Political Philosophyb. 1940
Carole Pateman (born 1940) is a British political theorist best known for her feminist critique of classical social contract theory, most fully developed in 'The Sexual Contract' (1988). She argues that the liberal social contract conceals a prior sexual contract that systematically subordinates women, and has also made foundational contributions to participatory democratic theory. Long associated with UCLA, she is one of the most influential feminist political philosophers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Notable Achievements
1
Authored 'The Sexual Contract' (1988), a landmark critique exposing the gendered foundations of liberal social contract theory
2
Developed participatory democratic theory in 'Participation and Democratic Theory' (1970)',
3
Demonstrated how liberal political concepts such as consent, obligation, and contract embed structural gender hierarchy
4
Contributed feminist political economy arguments to basic income debates
5
Recipient of the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science (2011), one of the field's highest honors