Plato’s View of Women and Their Role in Society Then and Now
What did Plato think about women as a group in his society? How did his views differ from the views of other members the society? Through Plato’s writings you can see that he thought differently about women. Plato believed that women had a right, or you might even call it a role to play in society. Their role was to be a significant part of society, different from men, but still play a part. Plato believed that women were necessary for society to run smoothly. Even though Plato believed that women were necessary in a working society, this did not mean he thought women were equals of men.
Women were far too different from men to be their equals, and Plato realized this. Plato thought that women lacked the strength that men possessed, and this meant that the women were weaker physically. Men may have been stronger then women physically but women had strengths that were far superior in other areas. Plato realized these strengths and began to notice that women were more suited for certain responsibilities in life.
Women are naturally maternal and these maternal skills made them better care takers for children, this womanly instinct is one of the many skills women possess that men just don’t possess enough of. This is still mostly true today in most societies; of course I can only really speak for how I was brought up but most of the matters you would term motherly my mother taught me; and all the boy stuff I learned from my father. Plato was one of the first men to recognize women for their potential and gave them some credit. In his time it was really unheard of to view women as more than mere property of their husbands.
I think that today women get a lot more credit and are recognized more for their abilities than they used to be. I still think for the majority that women are still not treated as equals to men. A good example of this is that women don’t make as much money as men generally, even if they both have the same job. Often women make about 30% less money than a man does for the exact same job. I think that this will continue to happen until women get so angry that they fight to make the wages equal, but until that happens they will continue to make less money.
Plato says that women need to have jobs but cant always have the same jobs as men because they don’t have the same abilities as men. I don’t believe that is totally true I think a woman can work almost any job she wants to, but I think a lot of women don’t want to work jobs that require a lot of strength because women are not generally as physically strong as men. I also don’t think that women really strive to be war generals or types of jobs that deal with a lot of decisions that might lead to war or other types of fighting. I think that women are to compassionate and have less of a drive when it comes to fighting, and most women not all would not make a good war general.
I think that the reason we haven’t had a female president, the fact that most people, men and women don’t think that a woman could handle the responsibilities. I don’t think this is totally true but I do think that the first woman president will have to be twice the candidate that her male counter parts are if she wants to win. The first women to become president, if it happens, will have to be so inspiring that people will forget the gender issue and stereo types and look at what the person stands for. This may sound easy but many people are ignorant and wont look past gender and see the person for who they are and what they stand for, this barrier will be a tough one to break. This is unfair but since this is how our society for the most part views women, it is something that I believe will be the largest obstacle for a woman candidate to over come.
I think that if Plato were alive today he would support women even more now. I think that he would still have a similar point of view. I think that he would still say that women and men are different, but I think he would tone down his belief that women are not equal to men. He would still think they were not as strong as men but I think he would have a more positive view on some of their other abilities. Since women have been recognized for things such as the Nobel Peace Prize, and are now a part of the national government. Seeing that women can achieve these goals would make him have more belief in the abilities of women.
It is hard to imagine that women back in Plato’s time really didn’t have an opinion, a voice, or many rights. I know women aren’t treated exactly as equals in America, but I assume it is much better than what women in Plato’s time experienced. It is even better now in this country than most women had it just a few decades ago. Women have gained so much power and respect in the past thirty or so years. I wonder what the women of that time would think of how differently women are treated now. They would probably be in culture shock and amazement. I think that as women gain more and more power they are starting to realize that they can fight more and more.
Plato gave women a chance in a time when society really didn’t, most men saw women as weak and not to useful. Plato gave women credit for the abilities they possessed and also said that women were necessary for a society to work. Plato saw that women were an important part of the society. Plato recognized that in some aspects, women are stronger than men. He realized the different abilities women had that most men were not as strong at such as motherly instincts.
I have a few questions that I didn’t really get answered from the reading I did from the book. First I was wondering if people who read what Plato wrote got angry with his ideas, because people got very angry when people started to talk about equality for minorities in this country. So were there some supporters and then others who opposed him. Also another question is did what he wrote inspire any women to make a stand and try to fight for more equality.
