  The broad claim that Plato or the Republic is feminist  cannot be sustained, and the label ‘feminist’ is an  especially contested one, but still, there are two features of the  Republic’s ideal city that can be reasonably called  feminist. First, Socrates suggests that the distinction between male  and female is as relevant as the distinction between having long hair and having short hair for the purposes of deciding who should be  active guardians: men and women, just like the long-haired and the  short-haired, are by nature the same for the assignment of education  and jobs (454b–456b). This suggestion seems to express the plausibly  feminist point that one’s sex is generally irrelevant to one’s  qualifications for education or employment.