Plato's Differences: Are Women Inferior To Men?

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Are women inferior to men? The first and most important observation to make about the popular question "Are women inferior to men?" is that it is a badly-formed, unanswerable question. For example, women on average are superior to men if we ask who is shorter in height than the other ("Growth and Development", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1992). On the other hand, men are superior on average if we ask who is taller in height than the other. Women are also superior on average if we ask who has a tendency to socialize more. Women are also superior on average if we ask whom do children bond to deeper, mothers or fathers. And so on: every question can be turned around, and more importantly these are properties which are irrelevant. Throughout the hundreds of years and many years back, women have been seen as substandard, menial, and subjective to men. In spite of the fact that women in our time, unquestionably have more flexibility as contrasted with past years, numerous would ask why they were ever seen…show more content…
In some of his writings he advocated a fairer deal for women. In his idealized Republic he foresees an upper class of ‘guardians’ among whom the chattel status of women is abolished (i.e. she is no longer owned by her husband) and in which women were to receive equal education to men. On the other hand, he ascribed the inferior status of women clearly to degeneration from perfect human nature. “It is only males who are created directly by the gods and are given souls. Those who live rightly return to the stars, but those who are ‘cowards or [lead unrighteous lives] may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation’. This downward progress may continue through successive reincarnations unless reversed. In this situation, obviously it is only men who are complete human beings and can hope for ultimate fulfillment; the best a woman can hope for is to become a man” (Plato, Timaeus

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