Is Socrates a Feminist - Essay Example

Philosophy Essay Is Socrates a Feminist? Basically, feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of gender equality,and mostly involves a collection of movements and ideologies all aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic and social rights for women. Feminism is all about questing to establish equivalent opportunities for women in training and occupation-wise with the feminists advocating for their rights and equality. The feminist movements’ main objectives are about understanding the nature of gender inequality by evaluating women’s roles in the society and lived experience which in result has developed theories in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of sex and gender. Significantly, to an extent Plato promoted the notion of both men and women being equal with some of his views supporting this claim specifically in book 5, where he tackled on Socrates’ view that women have plenty potential as philosopher-rulers or guardians of the state (VanHeest 1). On the support for women equality platform, the foundation of this claim is his assertion that a human should be judged on his or her soul and not on external appearance altogether. However, there are more of his views that entrench his stand on feminism i.e. that woman’s biology should not settle the question of her destiny and women’s intelligence and reason should also be utilized when it comes to the running of the state; matter of fact, these two views are the ones that serve the basis for the belief that to a certain extent Plato supports the feminist’s views (Cuizon 1). Socrates radically states that women should also get the same training in the society as men, in the areas of geometry, gymnastics, music, and with these most people fall under the misconception that Socrates is a feminist. Considerably, he gives a lot of support to women arguing that they should also be allowed to have active roles in the republic; however, this campaign is not based on feminism or because he feels that they deserve it due to the centuries of uneven status in the society. Socrates views both men and women to be equal in all aspects except strength, and is aware that both genders fall into one of the three parts of the soul, being either spirited, rational or appetitive, hence they all have uses in the city (Vilchez 1). Additionally, he is familiar with biological essentialism noting out that even though women might not be strong as men they play a fundamental role to the city and its comprehensive success. The overall analysis of women by Socrates gives him the idea that they are of use in any perfect society despite the diversity in strength when compared to men; however, he believes that there is no single thing that only men or women can do. Significantly, Socrates speaks against gender roles that are still relevant in the world of today stating out that no profession is suited solely for man or for woman despite the many junctures where people believe that, especially when it comes to leadership. In the world of today, the payment/salary varies with men being paid more than women and it has been hard to address this issue until recently with a significant number of people continuing to fight against the gender discriminations (VanHeest 1). One of the factors that make Socrates sound like a true biological essentialist is his notion that men are stronger than women which is typically true. The point on no one task is a job that can only be done by one sex is encouraging since nowadays there are men cooking and women who fight; nonetheless, there are still tasks that are dominated to one gender like the army’s are full of men who have proven to be stronger than women. There is often the confusion between biological essentialists and feminists for instance in this case, Socrates is more of a biological essentialist than a feminist, believing that even though men tend to be stronger than women, it does not justify the women being denied involvement to their full potential (Cuizon 1). If looked at critically, Socrates is only speaking about reality, making him a realist and no feminist but the ideas that he came up with during his time are still far-reaching and have an impact even in modern time issues like the woman suffrage and salary disparity between both genders. The quintessential example of Socrates’ philosophy might have emerged during the World War two where almost every male had been drafted into service hence gravely reducing the American Economy’s workforce. During this time, the women got the chance to prove themselves by displaying their competence into jobs that people thought only men could handle well. A number of women, the likes of Rosy the Riveter- a strong woman working the factories of America, became role models; moreover, other women showed their competence in Socrates’ ancient component of training in gymnastics through the formation of Women’s Baseball League and entertaining the country. When the men returned home the gender roles that had been broken were reformed with the women being told to go back to the kitchens and take over their initial position of housewives. Socrates was a very elegant and insightful man who was able to establish the distinct abilities of women overlooking the society’s view about them; all the same, he was not by any means a feminist. There are different reasons and factors against Socrates being a feminist especially when evaluating the situation using Plato. Although Plato was in support of a group of women, calling him a feminist would be an over estimation but can be said to have facilitated or rather taken part in the formation of feminism. One of Plato’s common writings, Symposium is said to be mostly containing anti feminist text having multiple points where the speaker constantly discriminates against the female gender (Cuizon 1). However, the last speech offered by Socrates seems to make an impact in the minds of many hence leaving their perception of the whole situation in relation to feminism not known. For most, in that particular part, Plato is trying to show the situation of the women of Athens through these speeches with the final part showing what he truly thinks about women (though it is hard to overlook the previous parts). Socrates’ voice is used by Plato to convey a woman’s thoughts; even so, if he was a true feminist he would have positioned a woman as one of the main characters rather than giving all these roles to women (Cuizon 1). There are also possibilities that Plato intended to show that a woman can be more intelligent making them intellectually stronger than men through Socrates’ speech who delivers Diotima’s thoughts depicting Socrates inspiration of Diotima. Basically, if Socrates’ was a true feminist there would not be so much doubts and critics on his notion; moreover, his perspective about people of the female gender even though he offered great support to them. Significantly, it is also argued that both Socrates and Plato did not actually respect women but instead they respected the potential and talent they had; however, this might have been facilitated by the condition of the society they were in- where women had no importance because of their gender (Vilchez 1). In some articles relating Plato and Socrates to feminism says that acting against the traditions of their society showed that there are no hopes of a balance being created between the capabilities of men and women. In conclusion, Socrates was not a feminist especially if what he did is compared to the current definition of feminism; however, the only way that his actions can be justified to be those of a feminist is if they are compared to the definition of feminism then. Works Cited Vilchez, Jenny. Socrates, Plato and Sappho: BBC Feminist Philosophy. February 2, 2012. Web, November 17, 2013 < http://bccfeministphilosophy.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/week-2-socrates-plato-and-sappho/ > Cuizon, Gwen. Plato and Feminism: Hub Pages. 2013. Web, November 17, 2013 < http://gwencuizon.hubpages.com/hub/Is-Plato-a-Feminist > VanHeest, Nancy. Feminism and Plato: Ancient Philosophy, Elon Student. 1999. Web, November 17, 2013 < http://facstaff.elon.edu/sullivan/femplato.htm > Read More