The institution of marriage has been idealized by many theorists, thus making it move towards being a patriarchal institution. In patriarchy, men primarily hold power as well as predominate in leadership, control of the property, and social privilege. In the idealized marriage institution, despite sharing the same standards of living, women are often vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and dependency ( Greenberg, Minow, & Roberts, 2004) . In this light, women take the burden of domestic chores since family chores and responsibilities are shared on the gendered division of labor. Further, earning of family income is deemed a male responsibility, and as such, men have the power to make decisions regarding how such income will be shared with women being reduced to dependants in the marriage. Additionally, in an ideal marriage, wives take the identity of their husbands, making them "property" that is transferred from their fathers to their husbands. As such, the husbands are at liberty to do what they deem appropriate, with them opening up an avenue for abuse.
The social contract depicts a model where individuals give consent to surrendering to the authority while giving up some freedoms for the authority to protect the remaining rights. In this model, when authority is absent, each individual would be free to do what they will, thus creating a "war of all against all". As such, social contract is entered by individuals who are free thus establishing an authority granting them security for their rights ( Pateman, 1988) . It can rightly be argued that within the social contract, individuals gain civil rights and freedom by accepting the responsibility to defend and respect the rights of others. The sexual contract, on the other hand, is an establishment if male political dominance over women, which is subjection. As Pateman (1988) opines in the theory of sexual contract, women are relegated to the private sphere and are thus subjected to “men as men or men as a fraternity”. As such, the freedom and independence of women are reduced significantly under this subjection.
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References
Greenberg, J. G., Minow, M., & Roberts, D. E. (2004). Women and the Law .
Pateman, C. (1988). The Sexual Contract . Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.
