In Plato´s allegory, the prisoner who breaks out of the chains and gets out of the cave discovers a completely new reality. Only then does he realize that the shadows he used to see on the wall were less real than the objects that were casting those shadows, meaning that what he thought was real, was only an illusion.
Explanation:
Plato uses this allegory to explain that our senses can only perceive shadows of reality, as reality can only be truly recognized by reason.
In my experience, the illusion of women being less adequate to certain jobs, often found in mass media, was relinquished by gender studies that show the prevalence of gender inequality in the job market.
