Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Women in leadership: can women achieve true equality alan greenblatt
Contrasting female and male leadership
Introduction to women leadership
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
When talking about leadership positions within the community, the authors who were writing in the Antiquity along with some authors who were writing in the Renaissance strongly believed that men were the only ones capable of being in an elected position in the city. Christine de Pizan has a different opinion, expressing a strong argument for the strengths of women, while also demonstrating how a city without men could become an equally successful city. By using the allegorical figures of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice as her guide to constructing this city, she paints a picture of how women exhibit all of the traits of men while also having many qualities that men do not possess. Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies lays the …show more content…
The “ruler” that rectitude carries symbolizes the ideal leader for the City of Ladies. This leader acts as a wise and knowing guide for the city, who keeps the goals of the citizen as the goal of the city and does her best to make sure that city achieves these goals. The qualities that Rectitude’s “ruler” symbolizes are similar to what Plato believes that philosophers will display when they are tasked for the role of guardian of the city. These philosophers will put the city before themselves, make ideal decisions based on what is right, not based on their personal goals, and they will be a wise and knowing leader that the people can follow and rally around. The guardians of Plato’s ideal city are handpicked to serve as the leader of the city because through their education, they have already learned to display many of the traits that Rectitude describes. By having the leaders of the city chosen because they have the correct set of skills, Plato establishes that women and men can hold the position and by doing so, preaches the equality of both …show more content…
The device provided by Lady Reason allows for the citizens of the city to reflect on their decisions, which will provide them with feedback and better reasoning for how to face problems in the future. Lady Reason provides a tool that is important for everybody to use. Reflection is the best way to correct mistakes, and while Plato does not directly speak about this, he repeatedly talks about the importance of philosophers, and one of the main aspects of philosophy is the reflection on the past and its effects on the
In his philosophical text, The Republic, Plato argues that justice can only be realized by the moderation of the soul, which he claims reflects as the moderation of the city. He engages in a debate, via the persona of Socrates, with Ademantus and Gaucon on the benefit, or lack thereof, for the man who leads a just life. I shall argue that this analogy reflecting the governing of forces in the soul and in city serves as a sufficient device in proving that justice is beneficial to those who believe in, and practice it. I shall further argue that Plato establishes that the metaphorical bridge between the city and soul analogy and reality is the leader, and that in the city governed by justice the philosopher is king.
Women in America have been described as “domestic household slaves” referring to their status in society. Do the documents support this assertion? If so what is the evidence?
The author of the book, The Ladies of Missalonghi, by Colleen McCullough describes to the reader how Missy, an unattractive woman, in a small town differs from Alicia.
The Empress Dowager Tzi-his (1835-1908) was a unique ruler unlike any other China had ever seen. She is considered to be one of the most influential people in Chinese history, a rarity in the male dominated Chinese world. The empress dowager exerted great power over the Chinese empire and influenced the political structure in ways it had never been influenced before, making many great reforms that she believed would help the Chinese people.
The contentious little book titled Women, Power, Politics maintains politics to be devalued, acknowledging the fact that only few people do vote, and women are unable to achieve within the realm of Canadian politics. Sylvia Bashevkin, the author of the book argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority, what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's biased role of representing the private lives of women in politics, and she wonders why citizens find politics is underrepresented in Canada compared to Belgium. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains her ideas on how to eliminate “low voters turn-out,” “devaluation of politics,” "gender schemas," and "media framing.” She outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics which are; contesting media portrayals, changing the rule of the game, improving legislative quotas, electoral reform, movement renewals, and so on. This response paper would addresses the reality of a political mainstream, actions which should be taken against the oppressive elements of reality, and the awareness it brings through economic, social, and political environment.
Men are to represent both the man and the women in the social realm and are the “breadwinners” and women are to be the domestic housewives. This difference in roles is especially prevalent in Thucydides’s text. He asserts that citizenship in Athens was closely tied to the honor of battle and the political sphere. Citizens were expected to be active in the social and political sphere, as well as die with honor in battle. Because women could not defend themselves and represent themselves, they could not obtain citizenship, and it is precisely because they did not have citizenship that they could not represent themselves. This allowed for men to look down on women because they could not perform the civic duty that they were not even allowed to do. Therefore, there was this confusing cycle that women were trapped in. Christine de Pizan, however, challenges this notion that women have no say in the social sphere. She does this personally in her life when she manages her own land, and writes her own books. Again, her case is extremely rare in that influence and background as the wife of a nobleman allowed for this. Her education also was a great asset and in normal circumstances, had she been a woman with no social standing, this would not have been possible. Pizan also challenges the cultural role set in place; she is on one hand, still a mother who takes care of her children, but on the other hand she is also the “breadwinner” of the house. It is precisely because she is able to do both of these things, that she is able to stress the equality of both genders in both spheres of
de Pizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies. Rosalind Brown-Grant trans. London: Penguin, 1999. Print.
The question of women’s agency, in moving history holds a long history dating back to the ancients, then turning away from that in small degrees during the Renaissance. Most notable in this change comes from the capital of education, the Italianate states. Home to rife differences in attitudes towards women, it also hosts the origins of the discussion around women’s purpose. The current field largely finds inspiration from writers during the American 1970s women’s rights movement, and it shows in the modern origins and their influence. However, the field’s creation date loom farther back than such a recent movement, easily dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Beginning with a negative view of the female sex as inferiority, the study of women and their rights progressed to Giovanni Boccaccio’s creation of female biography in 1374, and further developed with a female voice in 1405 under the pen of Christine de Pizan. Clearly, none of the prestigious scholars could have predicted the alterations and growth of the discussion surrounding a people group often considered subhuman.
"A Woman’s Place", the name of the commencement speech given by Naomi Wolf at the Scripps College graduation in 1992; contrasts the independent and the dependent woman. In today’s society, there are two different types of women: the woman who has a good head on her shoulders and knows where she is going in the world, and the woman who seeks dependence within the masculine world. Just as they were thirty years ago, women are still not considered to be equal to men. They are more or less looked at as being second to men.
In Chrétien de Troyes' Ywain, women represent the moral virtue and arch of all mid-evil civilization. Women of this time had to be an object of love, which meant they had to have beauty, goodness, and be truthful. They had to be a representative of all chivalrous ideals. They also act as civilizing influences throughout the story. Women are put in the story to give men a reason for acting brave and noble. Men become knights in order to demonstrate to women that they are strong and capable of defending themselves against danger. This, they hope, will win the women's heart.
7. Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, Translated by Earl Jefferey Richards, New York: Persea Boooks, 1982.
In Christine Stansell’s City of Women, the main issue discussed is “the misfortunes laboring women suffered and the problems they caused” (xi). Throughout the book, Stansell delves into the different aspects that affected these female New Yorkers’ lives, such as inadequate wages, societal stigmas about women laborers, and the hierarchal class system, within antebellum America. She argues that since the nation’s founding, in 1789, the bedrock of these tribulations working women would be mercilessly exposed to was gender inequality. Women’s opportunities and livelihoods were strongly dependent on the dominant male figure in their life, due to the fact that in that period there was very few available and accepted forms of employment for women. Stansell claims, “Paid work was sparse and unstable. Laboring women were confined within a patriarchal economy predicated on direct dependence on men” (18). As the work continues, she illustrates these women’s desires to break away from their reliance on men, as well as the avenues they took to achieve this desired independence. To help solidify her
There is no such thing as a less superior race or the other because even though we are created differently as man and woman, we are still created equally, of which we deserve to be given equal opportunities in order to attain our full competence as human beings. In time, with the growing feminist movements striving for gender equality, women will no longer be seen and treated as the weaker gender and being a man will no longer be the norm anymore. Society will learn to accept how women are created with their own set of capabilities and their contributions as both men and women are needed in society because characteristics that are lacking in men are said to be present in women and vice a versa. We need one another as we are created for a purpose to complement one another and to continue on improving society for the better.
At times, women can take action to either preserve the reputation or emphasize the importance of some well-regarded man. In other situations, it is the actions of a man towards a woman that helps preserve or increase the influence that he has. Even symbolically, women have importance in defining the standing of man, as they highlight what made a man of value to the community. Neither the Greek nor Anglo-Saxon depictions of women are too positive; nevertheless, they are accurate depictions of the times these societies lived in and of a time when women were considered to be inferior to
The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic - those that lead each person to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates was Plato's early mentor in real life. As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in several of his works and dialogues. Socrates moderates the discussion throughout, as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The basic plan of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the operation of society as a whole and the life of any individual human being. In this paper I will present Plato’s argument that the soul is divides into three parts. I will examine what these parts are, and I will also explain his arguments behind this conclusion. Finally, I will describe how Plato relates the three parts of the soul to a city the different social classes within that city.