Chapter XXXII. That Not Men Only, but Also Women and Every Race of Mankind, Ought to Be Admitted to the Education Above Described

[P] [1] ‘ARE we then agreed as to our former statements?

‘About what?

‘That every one, man and boy, free and slave, male and female, and the whole city, should never cease from reciting to themselves these charms which we have just described, changed from time to time in some way or other, and presenting every kind of variation, so that the singers may have an insatiable desire for the hymns, and pleasure in them.

‘How could there be any doubt that this practice ought to be adopted?’

In the fifth Book also of the Republiche writes to the like effect, saying as follows:

[P] [2] ‘Do you then know any human occupation, in which the male sex is not superior in all these respects to the female? Or need we waste time by mentioning the art of weaving, and the making of pancakes and preserves, in which the female sex is thought forsooth to be great, and in which their utter inferiority is most ridiculous?

‘You say with truth, said he, that the one sex is far surpassed by the other, I might almost say, in everything. Many women, no doubt, are better than many men in many points, but the general truth is as you say.

‘No occupation then, my friend, of those who manage the affairs of the state belongs to a woman as woman nor to a man as man; but the natural qualities are found here and there in both sexes alike, and while woman has by nature a share in all pursuits, and man in all, yet woman is in all weaker than man.

‘Yes, certainly.

‘Are we then to assign all employments to men, and none to women?

‘How can we?

‘In fact, we shall say, I suppose, that among women also one has a natural gift of healing and another has not, and one is musical and another unmusical?

‘Certainly.

‘Also one fit for gymnastics and for war, and another unwarlike and with no taste for gymnastics?

‘So I suppose.

‘Again, one woman is a philosopher, another hates philosophy? And one is high-spirited, another spiritless?

‘This too is true.

‘So there is one woman fit for a guardian, and another unfit.

Or was not such the nature which we selected as that of men who were fit for guardians?

‘Yes, it was such.

‘Both woman and man therefore have the same natural fitness for guardianship of the state, except in so far as one is weaker and another stronger.

‘So it appears.

‘We must then select women also who are of this character to live with men of the same character, and to share in their guardianship, since they are competent, and akin to them in nature.’

With good reason then our Word also admits to its divine instruction and philosophy every class not only of men but also of women, and not only of free men and slaves, but also of Barbarians and Greeks.