Carole Pateman FBA FAcSS FLSW (born 11 December 1940) is a British feminist and political theorist. She is known as a critic of liberal democracy and has been a member of the British Academy since 2007.

Pateman was born in Maresfield, Sussex, England. Educated at Lewes County Grammar School for Girls, she left at age 16. She entered Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1963 studying economics, politics, history and sociology, achieving a distinction. She won a place at Lady Margaret Hall to read PPE, staying on to earn a DPhil degree.

In 1972, she became lecturer in political theory at the University of Sydney. Since 1990, Pateman has taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is now a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Pateman served as (the first woman) President of the International Political Science Association (1991–1994). In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the British Academy. She served as president of the American Political Science Association from 2010 to 2011. She is also an Honorary Professor at the Cardiff University School of European Studies.

Pateman gave the Faculty Research Lecture at UCLA in 2001, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy and the UK Academy of Social Sciences. She holds honorary degrees from the Australian National University, the National University of Ireland, and Helsinki University.

Pateman was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1993–1994.

Pateman has been a Member of the International Advisory Board of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. In 1989, she was a Fellow at the same institution.

In 2012, she was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science.

In 2013, she earned the Special Recognition Award by the UK Political Studies Association.