Research Studies
Philosophy by Jeremy Stangroom (2006) Published by A&C Black Publishers Ltd.














Mary Wollstonecraftfirst women advocate of the rights of the women
Society should be structured in such a way as to allow people to fulfill their potential as rational
beings
Stereotype :
- Women were being brought up in such a way which stifled their intellectual and rational
capabilities
-Taught to defer to men
-Cultivate a docile sexuality with which to attract and flatter them
-Women character is opposite that of men
-Nature to live entirely for others
-sexually attractive meek submissive and anxious to please
She(Mary Wollstonecraft) felt that both women and men suffered as a result from this
If women were able to share the rights of men, then they would also mirror their virtues
Major source of inequality: EDUCATION
Women should be encouraged to cultivate their rational capabilities.
For example, a women’s primary duty was to be a mother; albeit that this should not involve her
subjugation to a man
Philosophy The Basics by Nigel Warburton, The Fourth Edition (2004), Published by Routledge






EQUALITY
Definitions: Kantian belief Rationality of equality of respect for all persons
Utilitarian belief: Treating people equally is the best way to maximize happiness
Egalitarians (those who argue for some form of equality) argue that money, access to
employment and political power should be equally distributed.
These things can contribute to a worthwhile and enjoyable life.
Distributing these goods more equally is a way of according all human beings an equality of
respect
PLATO –The Republic
http://www.friesian.com/plato.htm18/7/2010
Introduction: The Republic (c. 380 bc.), by Plato, is a Socratic dialogue about the nature of
justice and the order and character of the
just City-State and the just individual.[1] The dialogues, among Socrates and various Athenians
and foreigners, discuss
the meaning of justice, and examine whether or not the just man is happier than the unjust
man, by proposing a society
ruled by philosopher-kings and the guardians; hence the Republic's original Ancient Greek title:
Πολιτεία | Politeía
After two fairly disturbing proposals, Plato gets to one that is more congenial. At the beginning
of Book V
Adeimantus brings to Socrates's attention his casual remark that wives and children will be held
in common by the
Guardians, which makes it seem as though women are going to be Guardians along with the
men. Socrates says that he
hesitated to make an issue out of it, but that, yes, there will be women Guardians. Women have
all the same parts of
the soul and so all the same interests, virtues, and personality types as men. Since children will
be raised in common,
individual women will not be burdened with the task of child rearing and will be free to take
their places in their proper
occupations along with the men. If the warrior women are not as strong as the men, then they
may not be at the
forefront of the battle, but they should be at the battle. This equality even extends to athletics,
which is somewhat
shocking, since Greek athletes went naked. Words like "gymnasium" and "gymnastics" both
derive from gymnos
"naked." The Greeks rather prided themselves on not thinking that it was shameful or ridiculous
to go naked, as all the
"barbarians," their neighbors, thought. But Socrates says that nothing is ridiculous except what
is wrong, and that in
time people would get used to naked women athletes just as at one time they got used to
naked men. This all, of
course, has not come entirely true, since no athletes go naked today. But the male and female
nude torso statues that
were installed in front of the L.A. Colosseum at the time of the 1984 Olympic Games do reflect
Plato's version of the
Greek ideal of physical beauty.
Journal of the History of Philosophy(19/7/2010 )
Volume 21, Number 4, October 1983
E-ISSN: 1538-4586 Print ISSN: 0022-5053 DOI: 10.1353/hph.1983.0090
Smith, Nicholas D., 1949Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Women
Journal of the History of Philosophy - Volume 21, Number 4, October 1983, pp. 467-478
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Women NICHOLAS D. SMITH hN ThE Republic, Plato
argues that women (at least those in the upper classes ~) must be assigned social roles in
the ideal state equal (or approximat&) to those of men. Only one generation later Aristotle,
in his Politics, returns women to their traditional roles in the home, subserving men. Plato's
position in the Republic is based upon his view that "women and men have the same nature
in respect to the guardianship of the state, save insofar as the one is weaker and the other
is stronger ''~ (456A). Nature provides no such equality in Aristotle; in the Politics he flatly
declares, "as regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the
male ruler and the female subject ''4 (1254b13-14).
Moreover, the theories produced by Feminist philosophers explicitly seek to counteract
gender inequality. Thus, feminist theory (whether or not expressly ethical) remains
committed to a central goal: the end of oppression of women, however that oppression is
defined described, or delimited.
One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one
- Simone De Beavoir
Continental feminism reader
By Ann J. Cahill
Jennifer Hansen
TOPIC on Judith Butler although it is not very applicable
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity
For feminist theory, the development of a language that fully or adequately represents women
has seemed necessary to foster thr political visiblity of women. This has seemed obviously
important considering the pervasive cultural condition in which women's lives were either
misrepresented or not represented at all.
And the feminist subject turns out to be discursively constituted by the very political system
that is supposed to facilitate its emancipation. This bacomes politically problematic is that
system can be shown to produce gendered subjects along a differential axis of domination or to
produce subjects who are presumed to be masculine. In such cases, an uncritical appeal to
such a system for the emancipation of " women" will be clearly self-defeating.
A book about feminism:
The Education Feminist Reader by Lynda Stone
with the assistance of Gail Masuchika Boldt [Google
books “plato republic women”]