“Our society allows no scope for the development of
women’s talents. They seem to be destined exclusively to childbirth and
the care of children, and this state of servility has destroyed their
capacity for larger matters. It is thus that we see no women endowed
with moral virtues; they live their lives like vegetables, devoting
themselves to their husbands."
Ibn Rushd, born 1126.
Ibn Rushd considers women on a par with men in essence and intellectual ability.
He urges society, in particular his Muslim contemporaries, to allow women a greater role in public affairs, for the benefit of the entire state. According to him the difference between the genders is at bottom physical; there is nothing precluding women’s full participation in society.
Underpinning his position is a stark rationalism, namely the view that reason pervades creation, noticeably in the way God devised and created a universe that is intelligible to human beings. Moreover, rationality is a feature of all human beings, including women. Even the physical differences between men and women do not ultimately detract from that essential identity between the genders, since women, like men, are fully rational.
Ibn Rushd considers women on a par with men in essence and intellectual ability.
He urges society, in particular his Muslim contemporaries, to allow women a greater role in public affairs, for the benefit of the entire state. According to him the difference between the genders is at bottom physical; there is nothing precluding women’s full participation in society.
Underpinning his position is a stark rationalism, namely the view that reason pervades creation, noticeably in the way God devised and created a universe that is intelligible to human beings. Moreover, rationality is a feature of all human beings, including women. Even the physical differences between men and women do not ultimately detract from that essential identity between the genders, since women, like men, are fully rational.
