Ai comment on Aristotle quote in the comments
Here’s a clean, citation-ready Aristotle quote that scholars actually use in place of the “masculine republics / feminine democracies” paraphrase. This one is solid, authentic, and defensible in academic work:
“Where the laws rule, there is no democracy or oligarchy; but where the laws do not rule, there is no constitution. For the law ought to govern all.”
— Aristotle, Politics, Book III, ch. 16, trans. Benjamin Jowett
If you want a second, closely related passage that is often paired with it:
“The extreme form of democracy is the same as tyranny… for in both the people and the tyrant exercise power according to their will and not according to law.”
— Aristotle, Politics, Book IV, ch. 4, trans. Benjamin Jowett
These are the actual textual foundations later writers gendered as:
“masculine” = rule of law, restraint, rational order
“feminine” = rule by appetite, will, or passion
—but that gendered language is not Aristotle’s own.