What was Machiavelli's understanding of women and gender?

Question

Argument in the pub last night - I postulated that Machiavelli's understanding of gender was that of a largely gender neutral society, that women were free to become the prince as well as any man, whilst my friend argued that The Prince, due to its wording, was a work on male supremacy and that women were to be considered the same as property and could not become a prince. Which is it?!

Answer 1

Who cares machiavelli was a moron. A society ruled Machiavelli style will heavily underachieve. Italian families during the Renaissance era recognized this and achieved a great art output by encouraging the artists they hired rather than making their liefs miserable.