Plato Book V Is Plato a Feminist Essay Example

In book V of Plato’s republican Plato is very clearly a feminist although he does not hold women completely equal to men. In fact Plato states that the majority of women are inferior to all men, but not all women were inferior. Plato was indeed a feminist, but his feminist views were as a result of decisions made for what he thought was in best interest of the good city.
A feminist is a described as an advocate for women’s rights and legal protection. Within book V of the Republic, Plato advocates equality in different features of life within the good city for women. The equal education of man and woman is one feature of the good city which Plato desired to put in action. Plato felt this was necessary not based on feminist views, but due to the fact that women were potential guardians of the good city so they should have equal education as the male guardians. Due to the fact that Plato calls for equal education of the two sexes clearly classifies him as a feminist. Plato states in the Republic that the majority of women are inferior to men, he later states that some women may be capable of being equal to or even superior to some men. With this fact being, Plato feels that women must also be given an equal opportunity to govern the state due to their potential superiority over men. Therefore/ Plato called for equal education of men and women in the good city (Is Plato a Feminist?). Another topic discussed in Book V of the Republic was the Nature of a human’s soul. Plato felt that just because women had inferior physical features then men did not mean that women should be ruled disregarded from their nature. In other words, if a man and woman both had guardian nature, the woman should not be neglected due to her gender. Plato’s feminist views are greatly expressed when he explains that women could be well-suited to govern the good state. In the best interest of the good city Plato felt that potential guardians or politicians of the good city should not be