Who is the earliest known person in the western world (let's say that means Europe or it's colonies) to argue that women should be allowed to vote in elections?

by grapp
non-troll_account

I'm not sure about voting, but I've read that the apostle Paul was the first author to suggest complete equality between the sexes.

Edit:

Primary source:

  • There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28

  • The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 1 Corinthians 7:4-5

Those passages are indisputably by Paul, in the first half of the first century CE. Find me an earlier author arguing for that level of equality, and I'll back down on it.

Yes, lots of people seem to think Paul was misogynist, but mostly based on non-pauline letters, like the Pastoral epistles, or by giving sloppy readings to highly context sensitive passages.