DOMESTICATING WOMEN, CIVILIZING MEN - ROUSSEAU POLITICAL PROGRAM

I argue in this study that when Rousseau's oeuvre is read as a whole, the novels as well as the conventional texts of political theory, it r eveals a political program for reform of the ancient regime. This refo rm is founded on a reform of domestic mores. Rousseau's attendant conc eption of the relations between private and public spheres is more uni fied than that found in modern sociology. Rousseau shows that the dome stic role of women is a structural precondition for a ''modern'' socie ty.