Socrates now proposes to argue several examples of injustice in order further to elucidate the concept of justice. Justice is, as an ideal, singular, but examples of injustice abound. As Socrates is about to develop his examples of injustice, Polemarchus and Adeimantus interrupt and ask for a further description of the lives of the Guardians. Earlier in the dialogue, it was determined that, as a part of the social contract, the Guardians were to own everything in common. The question now is, what effect does this have on families and the concept of family in the ideal state? What is to be the status of women and children in the class of Guardians?
Socrates' answer is that, although we agree that women are in the main physically weaker than men, we agreed earlier, in establishing the three classes, that every citizen should be relegated to the job that best suited him. This is true of the women as well as the men, so women should be nurtured and educated the same as men if they are to assume their place as Guardians. Women are to be considered as candidates both as potential rulers and auxiliaries. And their education in the arts and in gymnastic is not to be separate but equal: They are to be trained together with the men.
