women in early pythagoreanism

The sociological aspects of Pythagoreanism have lately become a matter of academic interest. Several scholars, from Walter Burkert to Leonid Zhmud, have written about the peculiarities of Pythagorean societies and enquired into issues such as what kind of communities the Pythagoreans established, what reasons led to their foundation, how these groups later developed and affected the socio-political environment of fifth-century Greece, what regulated the entrance into the communities and what their internal structure was. Recently, scholars such as Sarah Pomeroy and Catherine Rowett have turned their attention to a more specific and distinctive feature of these organisations: the presence of women as both members of the community and adherents to the doctrines.