INGERSOLL: ‘Female Students’: UVA Professor’s Starting Statement About Boys Contains Subtle Reason To Hope

Women in Spartan culture were revered because becoming a Spartan warrior literally started from birth. Only a fine woman could possibly give birth to a Spartan, the thinking went.

Mothers were the first “drill masters,” who spent at least the first five years of their sons’ lives teaching courage, discipline, duty. The phrase that’s echoed throughout history since is “return with your shield, or on it,” a feminine decree that succinctly laid out male expectations.

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