Historically this was not always the case. In Plato's Republic Socrates argues for equal opportunity for women and men among the guardians, but some of his interlocutors contest the possibility of this ideal. Aristotle rejects it outright, holding to strong differences between males and females, free men and slaves. "It is manifest that there are classes of people of whom some are freeman and others slaves by nature, for these slavery is an institution both expedient and just" (Politics
1.5.1255). Indeed, for many Greeks, Romans, and pre-modern cultures, the primary challenge was not to treat equals as equal, but to avoid treating unequals as equals.
In the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all humans are seen as possessing equal worth because they are created in a common relation to God. In Hinduism and Buddhism people have unequal worth based on their karmic status, that is, depending on how well they have carried out their dharma (duty), but they have equal opportunity to progress to higher modes of existence and eventually to attain nirvana.
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