The Australian Women's Register

Carole Pateman was born in Sussex in south-eastern England to Beatrice Kate (nee Horscroft) and Ronald Bennett, who had both left school at 14, but encouraged their daughter’s education. At the age of 11 Pateman passed the Eleven Plus examination required for entry to the academically-selective Lewes County Grammar School for Girls, which she left at 16. She worked in clerical positions for several years before attending Ruskin College, an independent adult educational institution in Oxford for working class students. From Ruskin, Pateman won entry to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, where she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) for a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (1967) and then a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) (1971).

In 1972 Pateman moved to Australia where she was Lecturer (1972-75), then Senior Lecturer (1976-79), in the Department of Government at the University of Sydney, and Visiting Fellow, Department of Political Science, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University (1975). From 1980 to 1989 she was a Reader in Government at the University of Sydney in addition to taking a series of visiting positions at Stanford University, Princeton University, and the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

When Pateman arrived in Australia she had an established international reputation in political science through the publication of her book Participation and Democratic Theory (1970) based on her DPhil thesis. Since published in four languages in addition to English editions, the book promotes a participatory vision of democracy and criticises the theory of democratic elitism. Pateman argued that elitist theories by the likes of Schumpeter, Berelson, Sartori, Dahl and Eckstein are based on an inadequate understanding of the early writings of democratic theory and that much sociological evidence has been ignored. The book is considered a major contribution to political theory, along with The Problem of Political Obligation: A Critical Analysis of Liberal Theory (1979, 1985), and The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism, and Political Theory (1989).

Her 1988 book, The Sexual Contract, challenged the classical idea of a social contract whereby the power of the state rested on the consent of its citizens. In her powerful revisioning, she argued that hidden in the social contract was a sexual contract. While patriarchal power was overthrown in the public realm and civil society was created, the fraternal contract upheld the power of men over women in the private realm. Pateman’s critique of liberal social contract theory has been credited with bringing feminism into mainstream political theory. The American Political Science Association awarded Pateman the Benjamin Lippincott Award for the book in 2005, and it has since been translated into 10 languages. In total, Pateman has written, co-written and edited 17 books.

Pateman combined her theoretical work with a commitment to a more inclusive political science discipline, better able to interpret the gendered nature of politics. In 1979 she co-founded the Women’s Caucus of the Australasian Political Studies Association (APSA) with Marian Sawer. In 1980, she was elected to the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and in 1981 she delivered a landmark presidential address to APSA about the failure of the discipline to construct the status of women as a political problem.

Pateman continued to publish works challenging the masculinist tradition of political theory and despite being the most cited political science academic in Australia by a wide margin, her applications for chairs at Australian universities were unsuccessful and in 1990 she moved to the United States of America to take up the role of Professor of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles and was elevated to the rank of Distinguished Professor in 1993. From 1993 to 2000 she was also Adjunct Professor at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; and from 2006 to 2008 Research Professor at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

Professor Pateman has held fellowships at research institutes, including Stanford, Princeton, and Uppsala and has played a leading role in making the professional organisations of the political science discipline more women-friendly. She became president of the Australasian Political Studies Association in 1980 and in 1985 was elected as Australian nominee to the Executive of the International Political Science Association (IPSA). In 1991, she became the first woman elected President of IPSA and helped ensure the increased participation of women. In 2010 she was elected president of the American Political Science Association, regarded as the flagship of the discipline.

Her scholarship has been recognized with many prestigious honours and awards, including in 2012 the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, known as the ‘Nobel Prize for Political Science’ (2012). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the British Academy.

In honour of Carole’s contribution to political science in Australia, APSA presents the biennial Carole Pateman Gender and Politics prize for the best book on gender and politics published by an APSA member.

Following many years living in the United States, Professor Pateman moved back to the United Kingdom in 2017 and has now retired to Eastbourne.

This entry was sponsored by a generous donation from the late Dr Thelma Hunter.