Both Carole Pateman and Mary Astell criticise the social contract for excluding women. Explain how the separation of the private from public sphere maintains the domination over women.

Social Contract theory

Write a short essay of 750 words on one of the following questions:

‘Patriarchal civil society is divided into two spheres, but attention is directed to one sphere only. The story of the social contract is treated as an account of the creation of the public sphere of civil freedom. The other, private, sphere is not seen as politically relevant. Marriage and the marriage contract are, therefore, also deemed politically irrelevant. To ignore the marriage contract is to ignore half the original contract’ (Pateman, The Sexual Contract, p. 3).

Both Carole Pateman and Mary Astell criticise the social contract for excluding women. Explain how the separation of the private from public sphere maintains the domination over women.

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