Plato and Feminism

[guesswest]

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Well, women in Plato's society were of lower status than men. Plato's standard was a step up in terms of gender equality.

Also, female equality implies male equality. The same would have applied in a matriarchal society.

If the society was gender-neutral from the start, then I'd call Plato a feminist only in the sense that all the Greeks were feminists. But the Greeks were not feminists at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suppose I have to grudgingly admit you have some kind of point here. I just have a hard time accepting the Republic as suggesting this, I feel like where it arises it's accident rather than design. Plato viewed everyone as having a 'place' - that the slaves would be happier serving others, that the soldiers would be happier fighting, that the upper class would be happier sitting around talking politics. Women in this analysis remain connected to their families, thus they're integrated into these new classes by proxy. Which technically puts some women in a higher class than before, but I feel like this is largely due to him just not thinking about or caring about the role of women. I find it hard to think of him as any kind of feminist when his ideas on women are apparently a result of oversight or indifference.

[madnak]

Well, Plato's a special case obviously. But I don't think it's completely crazy to call him a feminist. In order to be a feminist does one have to be passionate about feminism? Or can one simply show a preference for equality, however slight?

[sigurrostyp]

After reading posts and doing more thinking I feel that all this is coming down to how you personally define "feminism" in determining whether or not Plato was feminist, and thus there is a solid argument for him being a feminist except it is not the most popular viewpoint.