CAROLE PATETMAN

the modern fraternal patriarchate

Abstract

This article approaches the new formulation or a new model of patriarchy, which becomes predominant from modernity onwards and which Carole Pateman calls fraternal modern patriarchy. With the help of the analyzis developed by Pateman in The Sexual Contract (1993 [1988]), the research sought to expose, especially, how the omission of the history of the sexual contract, previous and necessary for the consolidation of the original contract theory, contributed to the legitimation of the modern fraternal patriarchy, consigning women to subordination in all spheres of civil society. The effort in this article resides, therefore, in reassembling the contractualist theory, from Pateman's thought, to propose that the stories about the genesis of the new modern civil society can provide us the conceptual tools to designate the origin of modern fraternal patriarchy. We also seek to expose the importance that Pateman places on the concept of “patriarchy”, given its relevance to the author's theoretical and political project. Finally, we analyze the forms of patriarchal argumentation presented by the author in order to show that there is a problem in interpreting the continuing domination of men over women in a patriarchal way.