Plato’s suggestion that female guardians do everything male guardians do is a radical and revolutionary proposal in a time when women were viewed as property. However there are complexities and contradictions in the Platonic text on female equality. He makes obvious statements and allusions those women are more cowardly, less trustworthy, innately worse then men. In Book V, he emphasizes that women, as a class are equals to men in capacity, although on the whole, weaker in all pursuits. Plato’s ideal society is inadequate for the emancipation of women from the standpoint of feminism today.
His proposal is not in the interest of woman as a class whom he supposes to be depraved, but in the interest of the state. The ideal state is emancipation from woman and a complete “de-feminization” of politics. Through out the dialogues women are classed as natural inferiors, with children, slaves, and foolish people in general. “Now, one finds all kinds of diverse desires, pleasures, and pains, mostly in children, women, household slaves, and in those of the inferior majority who are called free. ” (Book IV 431c my emphasis). Plato also assumes that there is behavior specific to women and to cowardly men. …to delete the lamentations of famous men, leaving them to women (and not even to good women, either) and to cowardly men” (Book III 387d my emphasis). In Book VIII Plato states that woman are like children, amused by shiny objects; ”
And many people would probably judge it to be so, as women and children do when they see something multicolored. ” (p. 228 557c my emphasis). Even thou he states that woman and men have identical natures (Book V, 453a) in Book X he is inconsistent and observes a distinction between manly and womanish nature. this is the manly thing to do and that the behavior we praised before is womanish” (p. 277 605d). In Book V he states “it’s small minded and womanish to regard the body as your enemy” (469d my emphasis). Plato’s Republic is ambiguous and inconsistent in its treatment of woman; misogynist content contrasted with claims that both sexes have identical natures. The statement that the two sexes are not different in kind but only in degree, woman is the weaker man – always inferior in capacity (Book V, 454e), is problematic in itself.
Women are associated with men in all human activities, but that association is not one of equals (Book V, 454e). Everywhere, women are only secondary if at all “women”. Remarkably, Plato comes to the conclusion that females are first and foremost human beings, even if decidedly inferior human beings, when evaluated according to their ability to engage in characteristics human activities” (Book V, 454e). In addition, Plato considered the differences among members of the same sex far greater than average differences between the sexes in all the relevant aspects to the guidance of an ideal society” (Bluestone188).
Plato intends that the guardian class should be composed of both men and women. He maintains that there is nothing in female nature to prevent women’s participation, arguing, “there is no way of life concerned with the management of the city that belongs to a woman because she is a woman or to a men because he is a men, but the various natures are distributed in the same way in both creatures. Women share by nature in every way of life just as men do, but in all of them women are weaker then men. ” (Book V, 454e).
Then women of this sort must be chosen along with men of the same sort to live with them and share their guardianship, seeing that they are adequate for the task and akin to the men in nature ” (Book V, 456a). Plato’s concept of justice is based on each person’s doing what he is best suited for (Book III, 352d-354a). He explicitly states that there are no specifically female traits, either biological or psychological, that would naturally exclude women from these pursuits (Book V, 456a). In the Ideal State, human beings are differentiated by their natural inclinations to various pursuits.
Plato demonstrates that biological differences are relevant only to reproductive activities (Book V, 454a-454e). Plato ruptures the connection between family, private property, and woman’s roles. Childrearing will not interfere with the education and other activities of women of the guardian class (Book V, 457d). Plato establishes a set of social arrangements in which there will be no conventional family structures. Children who will be born as a result of brief periods of co-habitation in designated festival, “will be taken over by the officials appointed for the purpose, men or woman or both” (Book V, 460) and raised communally.
He does not automatically assume that children’s upbringing is by nature a female task. Men are equally competent for the task of caring for children (Book V, 458d). Woman’s special abilities were used to vindicate maintaining them out of sanctioned male fields. A patronizing determination that woman are especially dexterous for jobs associated with childcare or nurturance has conveyed the idea that woman do these things better then men there for they ought to remain in those sectors.
Plato argues that women have no special competence, men can do any thing woman can – better. Plato advocated extending the binding force of family ties to the society as a whole. He is not concerned with woman’s desires or needs. He does not care whether their present roles frustrate them, or whether they will lead more fulfilling lives as guardians then as housewives. Plato breaks the bond between mother and child and limits women’s participation in household management and nurturance if they are to participate in governance. Gender division of labor ceases.
Men and woman have identical natures and merit identical roles. Plato never discusses how to reconcile the private/public dichotomy and identical male/female natures among the third class. “Plato’s arguments are authoritarian rather then liberal and far from the arguments that woman should have equal opportunity because otherwise they lead stunted and unhappy lives and lack the means for self-development” (Bluestone 97). His Seemingly egalitarian statements about women’s capacity to rule go against the common opinion that woman are unfit for ruling.
When structuring his ideal society Plato never had women’s emancipation in mind, his primary interest was the good of the state (Book V 452a-452b). “State is only half a state if its women are allowed to run to waste” (Bluestone 42). The maturation of women was dwarfed, and the state lost the usefulness of half of its district. Plato emancipated women from the captivity of their homes, in order to subject them again to the service of the community. Plato argues for woman’s duties and not women’s rights. “Woman are to belong in common to all men” (Book V, 457c).
Rewards of more frequent intercourse are offered solely to the bravest male (Book V, 460b), displaying unequal treatment since rewards for women are ignored. Plato is amazingly liberal in his attitude towards women, he provides them with more freedom then the traditional Greeks. He does not display fear of woman’s sexuality; they were free to handle their sexuality exactly as they please as long as no children resulted (Book V, 460c). Excellent woman has usually implied a virtuous woman in terms of sexual morality, that is a chaste woman, whereas “an excellent man ” carries no such connotation.
This notorious “double standard” has been eliminated in Plato’s state (Bluestone 56). His program of eugenic control (Book V, 457c-459e) is not rationalized in the modern term’s of woman’s rights. However the enforced regulation of sexuality, until after forty, is less restrained then the sexual life of the upper-class Greek wife, whose sex life was regulated and whose mental capacities were denigrated. Plato grants women equal share in the pursuits and the education of men, as the ideal education was also for the best woman (Book V 452a).
Nevertheless, the ideal education inhibited and surpressed feminization, it was designed for future guardians, molding women into the male paragon. Plato judged men to be biologically more competent as a class in all activities, the limbs should be trained as far as possible, woman should do what men do only so far as possible (Book V, 457e). Women have always been at a disadvantage, Plato did not consider that educational practices ought to be designed to compensate for this fact. He did not think any methods were possible to correct women’s slight disadvantage.
With out changes in gender expectations, there is no way that education can be identical. Plato believed women have the capacity for education identical to men’s Book V, 457b). Equal education for female and male guardians would be sufficient to guarantee the development of an androgynous, superior group composed of assertive, dominance-oriented de-sexed females and men. He gives freedom for men and woman to develop to their highest capacities, standard male capacities. The exercises will not be modified for female needs, women will simply be added to an already existing structure.
A structure that demands their de-feminization. Plato indicates how women might live is a man’s world, but there is little doubt that it is a man’s world. Woman might become a guardian, but only by becoming honorary men: by having, men make room for them within male-defined structures. Woman will be equally responsible for formulating and enforcing the laws and establishing which traits are to be valued, however. They will be socialized into the orienting assumptions of patriarchy and be disinclined to challenge them.
Patriarchy is a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress, and exploit women. It is based on an ideology of men’s superiority over women. The subordination takes various forms: discrimination, disregard, insult, control, exploitation, oppression, and violence. De-feminized women will be perpetuating the “polis-centric” perspective of patriarchy; the valued traits will be those historically valued as masculine. The dominant group frames all competing definitions within its own perspective framework; Plato’s philosopher-queens will be unable to challenges the hegemony imposed on them.
The ideal state is liberation from woman. Woman will have same opportunities and responsibilities as man. They cease being woman and begin doing exactly what men do. In a “Feminized State” women have evident decision making position and an impact on the procedure system within the legislature (Vickers 115). In the de-feminized republic, woman will have decision-making positions but they will be thinking like men, and will have no desire to systematically introduce balancing perspectives from the “other” standpoint.
The number of women will not play a role in raising the importance of women’s problems because Distinction between men and women become meaningless, woman will adapt to the male norm. The men in the ideal society will be freed from woman’s issues because there will not be any woman’s issues. Plato denies the difference between men and women; he fails to consider women’s experience on its own terms, making female experience a norm, too. According to Plato, Woman differs from men in sexual function (Book V, 454d); she is in all other functions of life a weaker man, possessed of the same capacities but not the same strength Book V, 454e).
The ideal society will train its members to eliminate all sex difference – Women will have to adapt the ideal of manhood. Plato does woman a disservice by turning them into men, there will be no distinctions between the personality traits values in men and those valued in women because the only traits valued will be masculine. Plato’s ideal humanity is unconditionally masculine and polis-centric. He has no interest in equality for the sake of woman’s individual fulfillment. The Ideal State he envisions is one that would secure the greatest happiness for men like him.
He fails to re-claim a marginalized, devalued, subordinated, silenced, subjugated, and repressed perspective on the human condition. The Ideal City fails to balance feminine and masculine elements. (differences between the sexes are reduced to their role in procreation) This society gives woman more sexual and academic freedom then Plato’s contemporary states and perpetuates the idea that labor should not be based on gender but on ability, ideas that our society still struggles with. However, Plato’s androcentric perspectives are deficient from the standpoint of feminists today.
Equal right and responsibilities for women are not enough when “men” is center and “woman” is “other”. Plato suggests the male as the norm that woman should confound to he de-values women and fails to recognize the female as a legitimate a norm as well. Traces of misogyny (and the idea of common ownership of woman), which are exhibited throughout the dialogues, reinforce the idea that in his proposition to change the status of woman, Plato aspired to liberate men from women instead of emancipating women.
