Plato as the First Feminist. Explained.

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The connecting thread among all schools of feminism is the primacy given to the question of women. Feminist scholars basically aim at ending various kinds of discrimination against women.

In his works, Plato gives equality of opportunity to women in the field of education and governance. He did not believe that women suffer from some natural disability with regard to their ability to study philosophy, logic, or dialectics. He found it rational for women of proven merit to become the philosopher ruler.

Plato’s scheme of communism and state ownership of children relieves women from domestic responsibilities and provides scope for participation in the public sphere.

The above ideas of Plato were radical and revolutionary during his time and for centuries thereafter, because of which he is regarded as the first feminist.

However, it is to be noted that upliftment of the status of women was not Plato’s primary concern. His extension of the equality of opportunity to women was the byproduct of his theory of ideal state which advocated the rule of the knowledgeable.

Plato believed that the talent of half of the human population should not go waste and state should not be deprived of this human resource. Women are the means, not the end in Plato.