ABSTRACT
Feminist scholars have undertaken some very revealing and exciting work on the classic texts of political theory, but little attention has been paid to Thomas Hobbes, whose writings are of fundamental importance for an understanding of patriarchy as masculine right. A commentator has attributed a consensual form of patriarchy to Hobbes and argued that his patriarchalism is, therefore, the strongest form - and even a more typically English variety. A good deal of confusion over the term 'patriarchy' has arisen because of the failure to distinguish between three different historical forms of patriarchal theory: traditional, classic and modern. On the face of it, Hobbes's writings seem unequivocally opposed to both dimensions of classic patriarchy. Echoing the classic patriarchal view of fatherhood, Hobbes writes that 'as to the generation, God hath ordained to man a helper' but the female 'helper' in the state of nature becomes much more than an auxiliary once the birth takes place.
