Who The True Stoics Were

<p>If you were to run down the list of the great Stoics of history, who would come to mind?</p><p>Seneca. Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus. Maybe if you really knew your stuff, you’d <a href='https://dailystoic.com/zeno?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=true-stoics'>mention Zeno</a> or <a href='https://dailystoic.com/cleanthes/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=true-stoics'>Cleanthes</a> or <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysippus'>Chrysippus</a>. </p><p>What do all those people have in common? They were all men. In fact, you really have to look—and stretch—to come up with even one or two “accepted” <a href='https://dailystoic.com/stoic-women/'>female Stoics</a>. Does this mean that Stoicism is just for men? Or that it’s been entirely composed of men for the last twenty five hundred years? Do you think <a href='https://dailystoic.com/seneca/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=true-stoics'>Seneca</a> and <a href='https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=true-stoics'>Marcus Aurelius</a> and the male Stoics had a monopoly on suffering? On courage? On mastering emotions? On being disappointed? Of having to make due with an imperfect world? No. Not at all. It’s an omission that needs to be addressed. </p><p>When the biographer <a href='https://geni.us/xsNn'>Robert Caro was researching what life in Texas was like</a> in the late 19th and early 20th century, he and his wife were appalled by what they found. Just how primitive and tough things were. Most of all, how much backbreaking work was expected of women—doing loads of laundry by hand, carrying endless amounts of water, cooking so much food in such incredible heat, fear of Native Americans, the terrible loneliness and isolation. After speaking to one woman, his wife, Ena, finally said, “I don’t ever want to see another John Wayne movie again.” She was just disgusted at how much of the picture had been left ou