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Quite the opposite, insisting that we're equal is what is incompatible with the dignity of womanhood. If we're the same, but women fail to reach the same heights as men, that has far harsher implications than if we're different, and have different strengths. This is why we end up with "systemic sexism" and other epicycles to keep the theory alive, and to drive men and women even more at each other's throats (which really is the whole point of the equality meme to begin with).
Oh no, not a barely-out-of-the-bronze-age pagan!
If womanhood is synonymous with femaleness (that is, performing the biological role of the female sex), then woman has no more claim to dignity (that is, the natural sense which leads us to value man over animal and noble over savage) than any other mammal.
If you would prefer an abrahamic source:
- fragment of a prayer, Cairo Geniza
Sure it does. Any value that humanity has above other animals is completely dependent on motherhood, and is therefore subordinate to it.
Also, you haven't addressed anything I said in the previous comment.
I think you'll need to be a bit more specific than that to move me.
This, of course, is why garbage men and truck drivers are among the most admired and desirable professions.
The point is that, from a bioessentialist framework, the female role requires little to no particular strength of character. Pregnancy is a completely automatic process, caring for babies may be arduous but is not particularly skilled work, and if you believe the hereditarians, the actual raising of children has little effect on how they turn out. Additionally, none of the above tasks is particularly suited to cooperative effort, stunting the potential for camaraderie; as the saying goes, nine women can't make a baby in one month. Thus, if woman's sole or primary duty is to fulfill the female biological role, she will be naturally baser and ignobler than the men she pairs with, who must cultivate virtue in themselves to become capable protectors and providers.
The question, then, is how much impact has this lack of incentive for virtue had on the evolutionary development (or lack thereof) of the female mind. While I personally believe that ingrained differences in potential for virtue between men and women are relatively minimal, what differences exist are surely exaggerated by restrictive norms surrounding women's options for societal contribution.
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