From Contractarianism to Francophone Materialist Feminism: feminist repercussions of contract theory

Abstract

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704), together with Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), made up the triad of contractualist authors who dominated political philosophy between the 17th and 18th centuries. Both authors believed in the existence of a social contract to mediate the creation of the state and civil society, which had repercussions on social life as a whole, in various areas of knowledge, and also in feminist theory. This article seeks to analyze these contractualist references in the works of Colette Guillaumin and Monique Wittig, French-speaking materialist feminists of the 20th century, who analyzed the impact of the social contract on women's lives. With regard to the theoretical-methodological scope, we draw on historical-dialectical materialism and Francophone Materialist Feminism (FMF) to contribute to the traditional feminist critique of contract theory, concluding that the supposedly contractual relationships between men and women are still based on nature.