Plato\'s Republic - Gender Equality

3 Pages 764 Words

Plato’s Republic was perhaps one of the more controversial pieces of writing from its time. In this book, Plato attempted to immortalize the ideals put forward by his teacher and mentor, Socrates the Sophist. Most of Socrates’ beliefs went against Athenian tradition and convention, and as such was subject to great disapproval from influential Athenian superiors. Essentially, Socrates disagreed with virtually every aspect of the way Athens was run. He had his own ideas about the way in which an ideal city should be run, and voiced his opinion on diverse topics of discussion including the role of Athenian women in society. On examination of Socrates’ discourse, as he put forward his viewpoint on a woman’s place in the ideal city in Plato’s Republic, it was glaringly obvious that his opinion would not be embraced open-heartedly by Athenian readers of that time.

It was customary in ancient Greece that women’s activities were held completely separate from those of the men. In the time of Homer, women were seen as possessions, as was demonstrated throughout the Iliad, where they were awarded to men as prizes. Their status in society did not improve by very much in later years. In Thucydides’ account, one of the few mentions of women was made by Pericles, in his funeral oration, where he advocated that they should be “least talked of among the men, whether for good or for bad” (Thuc. 2.45). In essence, women lived in the shadows, unseen, and unheard, with their primary purpose being to bear heirs for their husbands.

The proposition put forward in Plato’s Republic was in complete disagreement with this long-standing view of society’s females. The concept that women and men should be treated equally was totally foreign, and the presentation of this idea to any ancient Athenian male would have been immediately scorned. It would have been viewed as totally unacceptable, because this was simply not the way things were do...