(UN)TREATMENT OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN ROUSSEAU’S DISCOURSE ON INEQUALITY

This paper makes an attempt to look into the aspect of gender inequality—unequal status of men and women in a society or a group—in Rousseau's discourse on inequality. It discusses Rousseau's framework of inequality among men and then analyses this framework to check if it holds true for women. In this process, the paper discusses difference between gender and sex and how conflating the two leads to naturalization of inequality between men and women. The paper concludes by discussing whether Rousseau's treatment of inequality between men and women is an act of mere silence or an approval regarding gender inequality.