Hobbes and the Equality of Women

Abstract

Hobbes's politics of gender affords valuable insights into his concept of equality. It is argued that: (i) although in Hobbes's theory women are equal to men ‘by nature’ and remain so ‘in natural conditions’, (ii) the Hobbesian social contract does not rule out logically the possibility of unequal treatment of men and women living in civil associations; (iii) nevertheless, contemporary interpreters can find in Hobbes's political philosophy a number of arguments that might be deployed to deny the morality, rationality, and utility of sexual subjugation.