Jacinto, Tracy Mary L.

Soc Sci 2 WFW-4

2019-04034 Ma’am Valenciano

Plato on the Equality of Women

Plato was one of the early believers that women should be deemed equal as men

in terms of learning opportunities and career choices. He believed that even though

men and women are “built” differently by their biology and nature, they should still be

taught the same things. Many critics of his time commented that there are differences

between men and women’s bodies, as women are generally weaker than men, and that

the two are very different in nature. However, Plato argued that “a man and a woman

who have the same psyche have the same nature.” He said that men and women must

be given the same education and learn the same things to provide training for both the

body and the mind. Men and women only have difference in nature when they both

have talents for different things, such as medicine and carpentry respectively, and if

those differences lie on the fact that they have different genders, then the differences

are irrelevant and therefore does not exist. Men are not better than women. Women are

not better than men. It is rather the people who work and train hard to be a Guardian

who are better than those who do not. If women were to be allowed to join the

Guardians and serve the city-state, then they must adhere to the policies and the virtues

held by them; if men were to laugh at the sight of the women’s naked bodies because of

social duties, then it is him who is to shame as there is no shame in doing what is

honorable.