LSAT 159 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q5

RC Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Based on the passage, Gouges would most likely have held that …

DISCUSSION: Marriage is mentioned towards the end of the last paragraph. It says that Gouges thought that inequality kept women at a disadvantage in all relationships with men, including marriage, and this would continue until women were granted full rights and access. So, to her, beginning with marriage reform would treat only a symptom, not the source.

___________

1. The issue isn’t the number of people involved in marriage, it’s that political power structures sustain inequality.
2. Sure, but this likely applies to traditional institutions like patriarchy. She’s certainly not saying we shouldn’t fight at all because society will be resistant to it.
3. Too narrow. Property rights are one example of inequality, but not the main reason she’d reject marriage as a starting point.
4. CORRECT. Gouges saw political inequality as the foundation of all injustice against women, so without equal political power, marriage equality would be superficial.
5. That’s Condorcet’s view, not Gouges’. She argued the opposite: that women’s inequality is the source of broader injustice, not a subset of it.