While reading “Utopia” I couldn’t help but notice the many times More treated women in this society as if they were ‘less’ than men. Knowing that this book comes out of a time when women had far fewer rights than men, I realize that the treatment of women in Utopia wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows in the 1400s or 1500s. However, in the context of this class, I think we can track, or map, the treatment of women and their place in a utopian world from then to now.

There are quite a few times in Book II where it is clear that women are not given the same rights or freedoms as men, and are even explicitly referred to as inferior to men. For instance, on page 45 when More is discussing the occupations of Utopians, he says, “Every person (and this includes women as well as men) learns a second trade… As the weaker sex, women practice the lighter crafts…” It’s ridiculous to us, now, to see that More even thought it was necessary to specify that he is in fact including women when he refers to “people” (because otherwise… they’re not?). We see in later sections, such as travel, that the nouns used to describe what citizens can or can’t do are always “he” “him” “his” etc.

This could be a lengthier discussion, but to bring it back to our class I am interested in posing just a few questions. How has the role of women in a society changed since this book? And, since the answer is clearly ‘a lot’, what would we change in a more modern Utopia? Essentially, how much of this “utopia” is still relevant to today’s world?