Discussion Starter--Aquinas on Women

Aquinas on Gender Differences

           

In Article 1 of “Aquinas on Women”, Aquinas’ introduces the idea that women are inherently unequal to men. In the first objection, he states that “it would seem that the woman should not have been made in the first production of things…[because] nothing misbegotten or defective should have been in the first production of things” (Art. 1). Yet, in his reply to the objection, he does not counter that women are “defective” men, but instead focuses on why they were still created in the first production of things by God even though they are defective. He states, “As regards the individual nature, woman is defective” because “the production of woman comes from defect in the active force”, but that women were not unintentionally created because they serve the purpose of reproduction (Art. 1). Aquinas argues in this article that women are indeed necessary to continue the human race—but are inherently worse than men because they are essentially an imperfect version of the male body and mind. Aquinas’ statement that “the production of woman comes from defect in the active force”—the active force defined as the force of life in a man’s sperm—furthers his point as it assumes women are therefore an actual product of men.

Aquinas also argues that “for good order” some people must be governed by “others wiser than themselves”, and thus “woman is naturally subject to man, because in man the discretion of reason predominates” (Art. 1). This statement, as well as the matter previously discussed, are directly in line with Aristotle’s views on women. By arguing that women are not only naturally worse than men because they are a defective version of them, but also that they are naturally worse than men because they lack reason, Aquinas simultaneously justifies inequality based on natural capacity or ability (as did Aristotle) by stating that women should be subject to men because of their natural state. In Article 3, Aquinas backs up this statement by stating that God was correct in fashioning woman from man’s rib because “the woman should neither ‘use authority over man,’ and so she was not made from his head.”

In this same statement however, Aquinas writes that just as it was not correct for woman to be made from man’s head, it was also not right for woman to “be subject to man’s contempt as his slave, and so she was not made from his feet” (Art. 3). So, women here are given a small leg up on the social ladder; although they are inherently worse than men, they are naturally more capable than slaves. This argument could also be in tune with Aristotle’s logic; Aristotle argues that while slaves lack reason and intellectual capacity, women lack authority. Here, Aquinas argues that men have more reason than women and that woman should never “use authority over man”, but women must have some intellectual capacity as they are more capable than slaves. Aquinas sums up the role of women in regards to men by stating that woman should not be man’s helper in work, “since man can be more efficiently helped by another man…but as a helper in the work of generation” (Art. 1). Thus, women do not have the skills to aid men in their daily lives, but should be thought of as their “helper”, not slave, to aid reproduction.