Plato's Republic and Feminism

• DOI: 10.1017/s0031819100019355
• Publication Date: 2009-02-25T14:21:21Z
• Authors: Julia Annas
• Keywords: 5. Gender equality; 06 humanities and the arts; 0603 philosophy, ethics and religion; 10. No inequality; 16. Peace & justice

Not many philosophers have dealt seriously with the problems of women's rights and status, and those that have, have unfortunately often been on the wrong side. In fact Plato and Mill are the only great philosophers who can plausibly be called feminists. But there has been surprisingly little serious effort made to analyse their arguments; perhaps because it has seemed like going over ground already won.