 Finally, then, Condorcet arrives at the most intransigent of objections to women’s freedom, those based on utility. What if by gaining rights women would be tempted to abandon their domestic affairs? What if female citizens would move beyond a relatively passive exercise of rights to assume the reigns of government? Condorcet insists that appeals to utility have been abused, serving often as mere pretexts of tyrants for denying “a true right” and resulting in such crimes as the enslavement of Africans, the imprisonment of innocents at the Bastille, the censorship of the press, and the exploitation of workers in trade and industry. However, he also finds it necessary to go beyond merely answering utilitarian objections to women’s equality by assuaging men’s fears. As a result, and even if for only tactical reasons, he ends up making a decisive concession to his opponents. So, he reassures men,