Rousseau's Lack of Evidence

Rousseau's largest flaw was his lack of evidence in his arguments. His views on education were basically unfounded, as well as his views on the role of women and family units. His claims were basically supported by his insistence that nature dictated these rules, and that disobeying nature leads to failure. However, Rousseau had no actual evidence to support his theories on the supposed rules of nature. His views on women were probably based on the established attitudes at the time among men, which were inherently sexist. His views on education were also relatively unfounded. While he did challenge the concept of universal education as indoctrination, his foundation for his views is flawed.
Rousseau did have some ideas that were good. His "Contract Social" was a forerunner of many treatises of the same spirit. While this work did not contain much evidence, it was based more on original observation and was quite progressive. While Voltaire avoided the question of racial equality, his statement implied that racial equality was an issue for him.