Women and femininity in Plato

The doctoral thesis investigates Plato’s conceptualization of women and femininity across the dialogues, with a particular focus on how feminine-coded traits, roles, and images function within his wider philosophical system. The project examines the tension between Plato’s frequent characterization of women as morally and intellectually inferior and his explicit claims, most notably in Republic V and the Laws, that women share in the same fundamental virtues as men when provided with appropriate education. By tracing how Plato links femininity with qualities such as emotional excess, cowardice, or lack of self-control, the dissertation asks whether these descriptions reflect claims about innate female nature or, instead, serve as rhetorical tools within his broader moral psychology and political theory.