Abstract
The aim of this paper is to enquire if the Stoics consider certain social activities appropriate only for men or women, a much-debated question in the scholarship. Here it is argued that the Stoics are not committed to gendered divisions of tasks. This claim is pled through an analysis of the various testimonies and of the Stoic notion of appropriate activity (καθῆκον). This result leads to reconsider the Stoics’ stand within their cultural environment and will hopefully contribute to the debate on their thinking on womanhood. This study is thus structured: firstly, the notion of καθῆκον is presented; next, the evidence of the Stoic use of gender as a parameter in determining καθήκοντα is discussed; then, a reconstruction of the social role the early Stoics assigned to women in their planned constitutions is attempted; finally, the reflection of later Stoics on the role of women in actual societies is addressed.
Highlights
In this paper the following question is addressed: did the Stoics think that certain activities, especially among those belonging to the social sphere, are fit only for men while others are peculiar to women only? Answering to it is fundamental to understand the Stoics’ cultural stand on womanhood and their application of the notion of appropriate activity to practical ethics
The present study is organized in four parts: in the first place, the Stoic notion of καθῆκον is presented; the following section is devoted to a scrutiny of the testimonies of the Stoic thematization of gender as a parameter in determining if an activity is fit for an agent; a reconstruction of the role the early Stoics assigned to women in their planned political constitutions is attempted; lastly, the reflection of some later Stoics on the role of women in historical societies is addressed
The enquiry conducted in this paper on the Stoics’ thinking on the topic of the gender-role division has led to two results
Summary
In this paper the following question is addressed: did the Stoics think that certain activities, especially among those belonging to the social sphere, are fit only for men while others are peculiar to women only? Answering to it is fundamental to understand the Stoics’ cultural stand on womanhood and their application of the notion of appropriate activity (καθῆκον) to practical ethics. What could shed light on the topic under consideration is an analysis of the relevant sources of the Stoics’ reflections on the social roles of women that takes its leave from an assessment of the notion underpinning their discussion of this subject, i.e. the notion of καθῆκον. The aim of this contribution is to examine this problem in the aforementioned perspective. The present study is organized in four parts: in the first place, the Stoic notion of καθῆκον is presented; the following section is devoted to a scrutiny of the testimonies of the Stoic thematization of gender as a parameter in determining if an activity is fit for an agent; a reconstruction of the role the early Stoics assigned to women in their planned political constitutions is attempted; lastly, the reflection of some later Stoics on the role of women in historical societies is addressed
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