Plato on Female Emancipation and the Traditional Family

Apeiron, 2016

Despite the prominent argument for equal educational opportunity for women inWe examine carefully Plato’s argument for the equal nature of women in

Plato was a philosopher and a mathematician in Classical Greece. He is considered a great figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition. He was a student of Socrates and his most famous student was Aristotle. He founded the Athenian Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world, and alongside his teacher and student, he laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato's dialogues have been and continue to be used to teach a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. In this essay I am set to present his thoughts on the equality of women and their engagement in political life, alongside the thoughts of other thinkers who have delved in depth into the matter in question as well, a review of the political status of women today before finally giving a critique of the entire foregoing. Recently, on 27 th January 2015, while ending his visit to India, American President Barrack Obama called for equal treatment of females as their male counterparts especially in terms of education and work. He said, 'We know from experience that nations are more successful when their women are successful … This is one of the most direct measures of whether a nation is going to develop effectively-how it treats its women.' 1 Such calls did not just emerge today for a look into history reveals that they actually existed long before the incarnation of Christ. Plato's position on the question of the equality of women as pertains to their involvement in political life is clearly stipulated in his dialogue, Republic. He held that women are of equal aptitude as men and thus ought to be offered equal opportunity to serve in the organization of the state. During his time, only Athenian-born male citizens took part in making decisions that shaped the city state. Women were confined to the homes for child bearing and rearing as well as caretakers. His proposed ideal state was tripartite, having in it the two leading classes of

Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy, 2018

International Journal of Social Science Research and Review

Plato is among the most influential philosophers in the course of history, and the range of his ideas about different issues makes other scholars impressed. Considering his various views on varied subjects, one can argue that many ideas of the thinkers originated from Plato’s ideas in the contemporary world. Plato, in different positions, discussed women and their equality with men, especially in Republic Book V. The study of the ideas makes one suppose that the book explores the roots of feminist theory. In Book V, Plato deals with the equality of women and men related to learning different issues and positions. Besides, he has discussed the children-sharing system resulting in the elimination of the private family system. Plato’s opinions are highly disputed; on the one hand, his ideas are considered feminist, and on the other hand, however, they are seen with no relation to feminist philosophy. The present paper aims to judge opinions related to women in the Republic Book V.

Hypatia reviews online, 2018

Plato’s “Republic” is generally held to promote equal education for men and women but to fall short of any sort of liberal feminism, since several passages demean women, and the education of women serves not their ends as individuals but the ends of the militaristic city. Based on (i) previously-unnoticed evidence of Socrates’ concern with gender in the transition from the “true,” “healthy” city to the unhealthy, “luxurious” city in Book 2 and (ii) an analysis of the different reasons given for the various roles of women in the first two “waves” of Book 5, I argue that Plato’s Socrates is in fact a visionary liberal feminist. It has not been noticed that in describing the citizens’ way of life in the “healthy” city in Book 2 Socrates suddenly emphasizes women’s (whether by nature or by Greek convention) domestic roles without ever mentioning women; in doing so, he hints that the needs men have for women is the topic he thinks should next be discussed in his and his interlocutors’ search for what justice is, since they have so far ignored it. When Glaucon interrupts to demand luxuries for the “men,” he ignores Socrates’ concern with women as autonomous exchange partners and goes on to endorse only women’s roles that provide men with pleasure and service. Subsequently “purifying” the city of luxury does nothing to remedy this omission. It is not until Book 5 that someone else – Polemarchus – finally notices that women’s roles in the city require further study. In response, Socrates derives proposals concerning women from various principles introduced earlier in the city in speech. By identifying these principles and their different origins (was it Socrates or Glaucon who first introduced them?), I distinguish elements of the treatment of women in Book 5 which Socrates would endorse from those he would not, for which Glaucon (and to some extent Adeimantus) is responsible. In the first wave, Socrates proposes equal education for women based on the principle in the “healthy” city that every individual should do what they are better at relative to others. In the second wave, Socrates proposes abolishing the private family based on Glaucon’s premises that the citizens should be managed like herd animals (see 372d, 451c) and that they should do so looking only to the interests of the city, not of the individuals within it. These premises are not compatible with Socrates’ own principles of autonomous exchange and specialization in the “healthy” city. These conclusions are supported by exhaustive philological analysis, which reveals that throughout the “Republic” Socrates quietly but consistently portrays men as ambitious, foolish, and obliviously unjust as compared to women, while by contrast he always refers to human beings as limited, imperfect beings. In sum, I seek to show that Socrates systematically hints at and wants to discuss how men should consider women to be equal, autonomous partners in exchanges of every kind (domestic, political, and pedagogical), but that such a discussion is repeatedly hindered by the androcentrism and misogyny of Glaucon and others. The Republic is a radical critique of ancient Athenian patriarchy that anticipates second wave feminism in the twentieth century.

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2006

Plato’s discussion of women in the Republic is problematic. For one, arguments in Book V which purport to establish that women should guard and rule alongside men do not deliver the advertised conclusion. In addition, Plato asserts that women are “weaker in all pursuits” than men. Given this assumption, having women guard and rule seems inimical to the health, security, and goodness of the kallipolis. I argue that we best understand the inclusion of women by seeing how women’s inclusion contributes to the civic unity of the kallipolis. I further argue that Plato’s Laws reveals that (a) women will become more virtuous by doing similar jobs to men; and (b) women will be given lesser responsibilities than men in any polis approximating justice.