Articles & Summaries in Economics, Political Science, Psychology, & More

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The ladies also produce the an example of female goodness in the acts of Thermutis, daughter of the Pharaoh, who protected and raised Moses as an abandoned infant. Finally, with other evidence provided in the Bible these women present to Pizan a statement including the idea, “There Adam slept, and God formed the body of woman from one of his ribs, signifying that she should stand at his side as a companion and never lie at his feet like a slave, and also that he should love her as his own flesh. ” As Plato, Pizan, Aristophanes, and Bingen struggled to supply confirmation of biological equality in men and women to counteract the previously oppressive beliefs against the female gender, each also felt employed to define the roles of women in society as a whole.

Greek culture dictated a very strict and well-defined role in which women were supposed to conduct themselves to maintain a dignified and acceptable status in their society; however, Aristophanes, Plato, Bingen, and Pizan dispute exactly what this role is to be. Bingen gives much value to the Virgin Mary, deeming her architect of life, “you who built salvation, you who destroyed death,” respecting her on the basis of her position as the mother of Christ and also a virgin, insisting on a very traditional view of women. Although she is quite the oddity in terms of education and published authorship accomplishment, Bingen does not bestow upon women any specific communal role other than housewife and mother, despite the fact that she herself is so much more. Perhaps in an unspoken way, as a mechanism to gain more substantial male approval, Bingen contradicts the customary roles of women, but just in a more elusive way.

The words and actions of Lysistrata also serve as a means of questioning the ancient Greek perceptions of the role of women in their culture; however, subliminally upon careful examination it seems that Aristophanes disagrees with his own character, instead adapting her quests for political rights into comedic relief. Even in the very opening scene, Aristophanes enacts the stereotypical and time-honored characterization of women articulated during this time period and thus through such description, Aristophanes distances his heroine. Becoming enraged that women will not stand up to how they are typically viewed, Lysistrata proclaims, “I’m positively ashamed to be a woman,” although it is through this stereotypical identity that she hopes to manipulate sexually frustrated men into a peace agreement, using their carnal prowess as a mans of gaining a favorable solution. True examples of tension between the sexes can be targeted in our examination of actions by Lysistrata and her followers against the men. Their male counterparts believe that women have no place in war and thus should not concern themselves with such matters. Additionally, the women of Lysistrata’s group seize the Acropolis to prevent the use of money for warfare, informing the Commissioner that women will take care of the city’s money just as they do at home. Aristophanes implies through Lysistrata’s ascertations that women have a greater sense of reason than boundless political men. She insists, “ye women must wive ye warre! ”, in other words, what Athens needs is a woman. Despite the apparent strides made in feminist ideals by Aristophanes, it seems that the author in reality is poking fun at the female attempts of expressed equality. Although women take on genuine power in assuming control of the Acropolis, Aristophanes excludes women from the spoken idealization of Athens as described by Lysistrata. The philosopher insists through this omission that women are not to have actual political rights or a valid voice in society.

Plato and Pizan make more extreme leaps in their publicized philosophies regarding the position of women in society in an attempt to convince their contemporaries of the merits of female public participation. Plato’s The Republic describes a civilization in which children will be raised in common by those of lowering socio-economic standing, thus freeing up individual women from the burden of child rearing and giving each an opportunity to serve the community alongside their male counterparts in the government. Under Plato’s idealized social system, women are allowed and even encouraged in accordance to their true nature, to develop their skills as musicians, doctors, or even warriors.

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To discount the obvious physical differences in men and women that prevent women from becoming as effective warriors, Plato insists that the fairer sex should not be at the forefront of battles, but still allowed to participate in war. Through Socrates, Plato also vows that women should participate in athletic events and gymnastic competitions, despite the required nudity, as men will get used to the concept of naked women contestants over time. At the beginning of Book V, Adelmantus points out to Socrates that the wives and children will be held in common by Guardians, effectively saying that women are able to be Guardians just as well as the men. From Plato’s Apology, the statement “…. and I think that they were a dishonor to the state and that any stranger coming in would say then that the most eminent men of Athens, to whom the Athenians themselves give honor and command, are no better than women. ”, can provide a double edged sword of meaning, but taken into account his previously declared attitude of women’s equality in power, one must assume that he is not trying to demean women, but instead provide them with honor that is due to all of society, regardless of gender. Plato claims that all members of similar social status, regardless of gender, should be provided with equal standards of living with no private ownership of anything, and also maintains that the ruling class of any given culture should be made up of male and female “true” philosophers from the Gold class. Pizan cites a law professor’s daughter’s innate capacity to comprehend legal topics and lecture to students in her father’s absence as evidence of the true capabilities of women. God endowed women with the gift of speech, and that of weeping and sewing, all of which must be utilized to the best of each woman’s ability. Each philosopher has his or her own ideals of how women should perform in society, regardless of how they feel concerning equality of the sexes.

It is remarkable that arguments were made by ancient philosophers, who were willing to go against common stereotypes of women and seek out a truer knowledge of equality in biological makeup and societal roles. Through the duties of Lysistrata and her followers in the absences of their husbands, women were able to gain more independence and self-sufficiency, which is comparable to the large steps that women made in the workforce and with women’s rights following World War II. With the seeds of equality so firmly planted by Plato, Aristophanes, Bingen, and Pizan, one would assume that advancements in equal right would have been made sooner than the twentieth century; however, most feminist movements and similar undercurrents in literature were squashed during the Middle Ages in Europe. Attitudes similar to those of ancient Greeks are still a reality in the world today in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries where women are oppressed. Despite the strides that such ancient philosophers were able to achieve in their time, even if only through publication, the fact that it took centuries to affect change reveals a fundamental rift in western societies between man and woman that needs not only reason, but also experience to overcome.

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