“Socrates: If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”
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In the Socrates’ time, the concept of gender equality was mind-blowing, unheard of, and progressive. We talked about this a little bit in class, and how it was still basically sexist as he goes onto say that no matter what women do they will always be inferior to some degree than their male counterpart. We spent actually most of class talking about this idea of gender equality: what it is, what does it mean, Plato’s vision of gender equality.
Just to make sure everything is clear for the purpose of this blog post: let’s rehash a little bit of that discussion.
What is gender equality? That’s the big question here, and to get the best answer, we have to honestly dive into what “gender” and “equality” means separately from each other first.
So what is gender then?
According to FAO, gender is “the relations between men and women, both perceptual and material. Gender is not determined biologically, as a result of sexual characteristics of either women or men, but is constructed socially. It is a central organizing principle of societies, and often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution.” Okay, to summarize this lengthy definition, gender basically is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT influenced by the societal assigned roles and is completely DIFFERENT than sex–they are NOT interchangeable at all.
So what does equality mean then?
According to Merriam-Webster, equality means “the quality or state of having the same rights, social status, etc.”
At this point, we can put two and two together to see that gender equality means that regardless of the gender of the person, that person is given the same rights and opportunity for high social status as anyone else.
Plato’s vision of gender equality is that the women (specifically the Guardian women) would get the same education as their male counterparts and would serve in the same capacities as the men in Kallipolis. This seems like gender equality, except for the part that he thinks the women would still naturally be inferior to the men. Is it sexism or is his vision of gender equality still gender inequality but to a lesser extent? Well, I see it as both. In the Ancient Athens, women were viewed as not as naturally important or necessary for society as the men. This gender inequality of their world influenced Plato/Socrates deeply in implanting this gender inequality as “gender equality.” It is also driven by sexism as Socrates describes women as being “naturally inferior.” While we should give kudos to Socrates for being the first one to make a step in the right direction for women’s rights, we also should not praise him for this baby step that he took. He did not fight for women’s rights and later bashed all women.
I also think that this idea of giving women equal training and job opportunities interesting in relation to current times now. We are still having a similar argument with the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and other like it. As we condemn this society and Socrates for not fighting hard enough or not promoting women’s rights, we also must remember that only 40% of Americans see an issue with women getting paid 33 cents less to the dollar compared to the male counterpart and only 32% say that legislation is necessary to “combat the issue.” We live in a society, where we act as if gender equality exists, yet we do not allow basic laws to allow gender equality in pay (and therefore opportunity for social class) to be passed. We do not try to tackle the gender issues facing America today seen in the unfortunate stories of young agender and transgender men and women committing suicide or grabbling with mental illness due to the societal pressure and flaws.
We should seek this part of Socrates’ utopia, where women, men and other genders are able to rise to the same opportunity for a high social class, equal protection under the law, and freedoms.
Until next time!
Shan
For more information:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5608e/y5608e01.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equality
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/15/equal-pay-poll_n_5148796.html
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/14/on-equal-pay-day-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-gender-pay-gap/