Socratic Dialogue The following conversation is one that takes place between Socrates and a Psychologist who believes that males are superior to women.
John: It is quite unfortunate that we have tunnel vision when trying to achieve an egalitarian society in regards to males and females.
Socrates: Before tackling your initial proposition, may I ask how you differentiate between male and female.
John: While there is a biopsychological aspect to it, I strongly believe that the biological properties are what hold the greater weight in this multifaceted construct. For me the genetic and hormonal differences in the makeup of men and women are a significant component which leads to inherent differences between the two.
Socrates: So, in your mind
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John: When you put it like that it seems like a bit of hyperbole on my part, but I still believe that there is a relation with testosterone levels and these behaviors which can give men an advantage in many facets in the workplace.
Socrates: Well I understand the importance of those aspects, but is there a sense that you might be overlooking how many females also share these attributes but may not be give the same opportunities afforded to males? And that these lacks of opportunities arises from more social factors.
John: I should concede that could be an equally compelling argument for the disparity of gender in workplace. But I feel like there are other trends observed which still maintain my original position.
Socrates: Please enlighten me as I am oblivious to all this.
John: Men tend to think more systemically (Helgeson, 2016) which can be much more beneficial in a lot of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) which is reflected in how more males tend to go into these courses in university.
Socrates: Would this mean that females are not able to think
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Can it not be due to other factors that can be linked to something such as evolution?
Jane: Well maybe there could be a reason linked to the production of eggs being very limited in comparison to the production of sperm which is exponentially greater. This would mean that women would need to be a lot healthier and not be as susceptible to certain disorders which affect those who do not have the XX chromosome.
Socrates: Its almost important to not be locked into a single paradigm, but why is it that you overlook biology so much?
Jane: The overreliance on biology when talking about gender is what leads to aspects such as women being weaker than men being spread out and further inflaming the already sexist nature within our society.
Socrates: But isn’t an average man objectively stronger than a female?
Jane: Yes
Socrates: Why is difficult to accept there are certain facets in which one gender does better than the other… isn’t insisting females being superior to males just as sexist as the issue you brought up?
Jane: That is correct, I have no rebuttal to
Fulbright, who is a sexologist, sexuality educator, and author denies the truth of John Gray’s arguments demonstrated in the book “Men Are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. The author calls some claims such as “females talk more than males”, “females are more verbally skilled than males”, and “men are more direct than women and not polite in communication” false. In order to show the weaknesses of John Gray’s arguments, the author uses the facts and reliable sources that are related to the claims of Gray. Therefore, the author criticizes the points that are common when people talk about men and communication differences based on trustworthy facts. This article has more unique features that can help people who are preparing the research about this topic to approach from a different
45) where she says that Aspasia’s the only woman in classical Greek history to be able to uphold to the standards of what a woman should deliver in a public domain. This separation between men and women participation created the masculine setting for rhetoric as a whole. Carol Gilligan claims that women tend to be more collaborative while men are the competitive ones and are individualists. (Billig) Billig claims in his book, Arguing and Thinking:
The biological categories of gender strongly influence the social dynamics of gender (Conley 281). Gender matters because it structures relations between people, but as gender structures relation it does this on unequal ground.
Socrates comments on the idea that in an ideal state, if men and women were educated equally, the best suited person for the job would be chosen, regardless of his or her gender. Providing equal opportunities like this for both men and women help the ideal state, because the best suited person for the job would be chosen. This idea was centuries ahead of the time and was extremely controversial. Socrates’ and Plato’s ideas disrupted society and changed societal views. Socrates was later killed for being a heretic because of such
Men and woman coexisting in the working field (or in general) is not an easy subject to grasp upon; considering the fact that men and women look and perceive matters on a totally different scale than each other. In society, men and women tend to not fully understand each other when it comes to conversations, work, emotions, etc. Here is a question to ask ourselves: What generally makes men and women so different from each other and in what aspects? Deborah Tannen further explains and talks about the subject of men vs. women miscommunications in her article titled “But what do you mean?”. Because women are not trying to avoid the one-down position, that is unfortunately where they may end up and author supports this with the use of compare
Gender Roles: Interpreting The Opposite Sex In today’s society men and women are often expected to perform different tasks, and occupy different roles based on their sex. Within different cultures, the view of how women and men should act and interact varies with political and religious influences, as well as personal influences. Geoffrey Chaucer suggests that people’s ability to understand the opposite sex is divided because of the stereotypes set in society for the opposite genders. Women are more likely to work as secretaries, and men are likely expected to work as managers and executives in the working field.
Logos is presented in various ways such as statistics or even just logical thinking. Pollitt’s logical thinking is placed when she explains that Nancy Chodorow, a difference feminist who believes that naturally women are relational and men are autonomous, is wrong when analyzing the real world. Pollitt states, “If Chodorow is right relational women and autonomous men should be the norm, but are they?” (404). Pollitt is informing us that it is clear that we all seen men and women who do not follow such criteria.
Humans have always had a unique perspective on gender roles. Throughout history, women have somehow became less superior to men. There are multiple variables to how and why this came to be. Whether it was the agriculture revolution, influential literature, or even climate events from the Mesopotamian civilization, males have managed to be more dominant. There has also been harmful sexism perspectives passed down each generation that could have triggered what women can and cannot do.
To stop gender inequality we have to treat women and men equally. If we continue to make believe about the society’s expectations towards ourselves, then we will be locked in the doll's house with the ghosts of Torvald and Nora hanging
Although stated by More, “both men and women, of all ranks, go to hear lectures of one sort or other”
In our recent history, feminism has become more prevalent in almost every aspect of our lives. One important thing to remember is that each sex has uniquely valuable traits to contribute to society (Maguire, 2014). However, overgeneralizations of these traits have driven a wedge between the different sexes and as a result, discrimination, injustice, and unfair stereotypes plague our society. Key terms discussed throughout each source include, but are not limited to, gender stereotypes, double standards, benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, gender disparities, and female/male injustice. Gender stereotypes encompass the generalizations placed on gender-specific traits.
One of the most controversial waves Socrates spoke of is that women are ostensibly equal to their male counterparts. He understands that there is a difference in “brute physicality” between men and women, but if given the same education during their formative years, women can potentially outperform men academically. He has absolutely no qualms about a woman being in a leader’s position if she is the smartest and wisest of the people and has their best interests at heart. “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”
In the “Republic” Plato explains that for society to have equal leadership between the sexes women need to be taught the same things as the men. “…if we are to set women to the same tasks as men, we must teach them the same things” (CWT p.336). At this time in ancient Greece the education of women is next to nil. Plato is stepping out of the social norms of the time to explain what is needed for an ideal society. Plato knows that to be successful women need to be trained and educated in the same way as
In the Timaeus dialogue, he writes that “of the men who came into the world, those who were cowards or led unrighteous lives may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation” (Timaeus 91), saying that the soul will be separated from the body after death and continue to exist, and women body is where those corrupted souls reincarnated. Many Plato scholars or feminist who try to use Plato’s philosophy as their support, and they tried to defend this particular myth in the Timaeus by saying that the Republic’s philosophy was what Plato truly believed, not the other dialogues. However, Feminist scholar Christine Garside Allen in her chapter “Plato on Women” counter this defense with the fact that although some aspects of the myth could be dismissed, it is still undeniable that Plato clearly believes that women are an inferior kind of incarnation
Introduction “Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus.” This phrase has some definite meaning to it, symbolizing that men and women are indeed different in many ways. There has been an ongoing debate on whether the male and the female cognitive characteristics shape their relative attitude about success. This is an interesting area of study to note on which previous researches have been carried out to observe how gender happens to shape the various cognitive skills – and with regard to this, then set out to conclude how these gender disparities may affect the way both genders perform various tasks. A generally accepted fact remains that the quality of education received from schools and universities does play a definite role in the student’s