Gender Inequality & Its Perception in the Ancient, Medieval & Postmodern Philosophy

Gender inequality is one of the most controversial issues which has persisted since ancient time and is still present in the contemporary society. In this regard, views on the gender inequality were often biased and the idea of the male supremacy prevailed in the western philosophy, although some ancient thinkers, like Plato, suggested that women should be granted with equal political rights. However, such a view on gender equality was rather exceptional and did not bring any considerable changes to the position of genders until the present epoch, when the postmodernist philosophy attempts to lay the ideological, philosophic foundation to the concept of the gender equality that would put the end to the persisting gender inequality.

The ancient philosophy was the male philosophy mainly. There were not many female philosophers and there were virtually none female philosopher, who had had a considerable impact on ancient philosophy and worldview. The most influential philosophers were male, such as Plato, Aristotle, and others. More important, they focused on issues that were really important for them, such as the origin of the world, virtues, ideal state and social order, and others, but they paid little attention to the problem of gender inequality, as if it did not even exist at all. However, the actual position of women in ancient Greek society, for example, was severely oppressed. They were excluded from the political and economic life. They lived in the separated part of households and experienced other discriminatory practices. In this regard, the lack of attention of prominent ancient philosophers to women and the problem of gender inequality proves that gender gaps and inequality was so significant that philosophers did not even take it seriously to discuss gender inequality in their writings. When one studies the problem of gender inequality in ancient philosophy, one will find little information on the problem in writings of ancient philosophers. Male philosophers just took for granted that males hold the dominant position in society and women hold the inferior position. At the same time, some philosophers, such as Plato, suggested progressive and challenging ideas concerning women that reveal the huge gender inequality that existed in the ancient time. In his Republic, Plato suggests granting women with equal political rights compared to men and he provides the reasonable explanation to such change. Implicitly, Plato revealed that women were in the inferior position and gender inequality was significant, but his suggestion to provide women with equal political rights was almost unachievable suggestion as his vision of the ideal state ruled by philosophers.

The medieval philosophy turns out to be even more restrictive with regard to the gender inequality. The western medieval philosophy was still predominantly male with no significant female philosophers influencing the development of the medieval philosophy. The problem of gender inequality was still ignored and philosophers did not take the problem seriously because they continued to treat women as second class citizens. They grew convinced in this idea under the growing impact of Christian worldview which suggested that men and women were created by God and the submissive position of women was sanctioned by God. Thomas Aquinas, William of Okham, and other medieval philosophers supported the Christian view and suggested that gender roles were defined by God and did not need any changes. In such a way, implicitly, medieval philosophers confirmed and supported the idea of gender inequality which persisted in the medieval society and was still taken for granted by society. Moreover, the view on the gender inequality became even more homogeneous compared to the ancient philosophy, which was more diverse and pluralistic in philosophic views. The lack of attention to the problem of gender inequality and the justification of the gender inequality by the medieval philosophy contributed to the enhancement of patriarchal gender relation and widening gaps between genders. As a result, the medieval society did not even admit the possibility of existence of hetairai, which were free, educated women in ancient Greece, who provided sexual services, companionship and intellectual stimulation to their clients and who were often well-educated.

Nevertheless, the rise of feminism and the injustice of the gender inequality became obvious in the course of time and resulted in the drastic change in the position of women which was also inspired by modern and postmodern philosophy which promoted the elimination of the gender inequality and provision of men and women with equal rights in all fields. Many philosophers stand for the elimination of gender inequality and the elimination of barriers between genders. Ironically, the western philosophy still remains predominantly male but the change in the philosophy and views of philosophers on the problem of gender inequality contributed to the beginning of the elimination of gender inequality. The rise of feminism and profound political, socioeconomic and cultural changes also resulted in closing gaps between men and women. As a result, the postmodern philosophy made the gender inequality one of the main issues that urged the public and policy makers to focus on the solution of this problem.

Thus, the problem of gender inequality was neglected in ancient and medieval philosophy that resulted to the widening gaps between men and women and persisting gender inequality, while postmodern philosophy finally brought the problem to light and encouraged the public and policy makers to resolve the problem.

Works Cited:

Plato. Republic. New York: Penguin Classics, 2012.

Russell, George. Introduction to Philosophy. New York: Random House, 2003.

Volti, Rudi. Society and Technological Change. New York: Worth Publishers, 2017.