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Plato On Women's Equality
Plato On Women's Equality
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.