Tocqueville’s image of women appears relatively backwards, even when measured by the standards of the time in which he wrote his work. Accordingly, the list of critics who have attributed to him antifeminist prejudices, chauvinistic stereotypes, blind spots, and a fundamental opposition to gender equality is long (e.g., Morton 1984; Matsumoto 1986; Kerber 1988; Okin 1989; May 1990; Manent 1996; for an overview see Shapiro 1997; Zaleski 2008, 260–266; Carey 2009). Even a historical placement of Tocqueville’s treatment of the ‘différence des sexes’ (cf. Parker Benegahr 1994; Fraisse 1995) can only partially relativize this overall impression, especially when, as with Susan Okin (1989), Tocqueville’s antifeminist and patriarchal side is highlighted as a nearly typical accompaniment of classical liberal theory. The neoconservative enthusiasm for Democracy in America, which continues to this day, especially in the USA (Locke/Botting 2009, 3), is thus based not least on the subtle gender hierarchy that the work conveys (cf. Kristol 1991). Conversely, the gender issue has sometimes even been used as a reason to declare Tocqueville’s political theory as such historically obsolete (e.g., Smith 1993; Steven 1995).