The eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
reputation for writing in apparent inconsistencies and paradoxes is
well deserved. He confronts the reader with ironies of all sorts.
In this engaging new work, Penny A. Weiss wrestles with issues of
gender in the works of Rousseau. She addresses the apparent
male/female role contradictions that run through many of his works
and attempts to resolve them by placing them within the context of
themes and principles that provide the framework for his political
philosophy. Rousseau advocated separate family roles for men and
women as a way of encouraging them to become more effective social
and political beings. His advocacy of sexual differentiation has
often been criticized as antifeminist. In Emile, for example,
Rousseau argues that women engaged in activities outside the home
will become neglectful of their domestic duties. Penny A. Weiss
maintains that Rousseau's antifeminist convictions arise not out of
any belief that biology determines different family roles for men
and women or that the traditional nuclear family is naturally
better than other types of families. Rather, he believes that
sexual differentiation forces individuals to look beyond themselves
for certain functions and to become more interdependent, social
beings. Some have argued that rigidly defined roles for men and
women have the effect of making both sexes incomplete. Such
incompleteness is, however, precisely what Rousseau seeks since it
helps people to overcome a natural egoism and selfishness and
prepares them to be effective participants in the political order.
It is tempting to attribute Rousseau's remarks on the sexes to the
times in which hewrote or to his personal idiosyncratic
preferences, so starkly do they seem to conflict with his
principled commitments to freedom and equality. Weiss examines the
debates about Rousseau's concepts of gender, justice, freedom,
community, and equality, making a significant contribution to
feminist theory. In recovering the connection between Rousseau's
sexual politics and his political theory, Weiss advances a new,
more complete picture of Rousseau's work. She convinces us that
Rousseau's political strategy is ultimately unworkable,
undermining, as it does, the very community it is meant to
establish. Addressing important contemporary questions regarding
families, citizens, and communities, Gendered Community also
reveals the variety and complexity of antifeminist writing.
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