|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 3
All these statements are summed up by saying that not only in women, but
in most female animals of the higher orders, life is more anabolic than
in males. They tend to more static conditions; they collect, organize,
conserve; they are patient and stable; they move about less; they more
easily lay on adipose tissue. Compared with the female, the male animal
is katabolic; he is active, impulsive, destructive, skilful, creative,
intense, spasmodic, violent. Such a generalization as this must not be
pushed too far in its applications to our daily life; but as a statement
of basal differences it seems justified by ordinary observation as well
as by scientific tests.[6]
[6] PATRICK GEDDES and ARTHUR THOMPSON, in _The Evolution of Sex_, D.
Appleton & Co., 1889, first advanced this position.
Meantime, it is probably true that the female, as mother of the race, is
more important biologically than the male, since she both furnishes germ
plasm and nourishes the newly conceived life. The latest studies, along
lines laid down by Mendel, seem to indicate that the female brings to
the new creation both male and female attributes, while the male brings
only male qualities. Thus when either sex sinks into insignificance, as
sometimes happens in lower forms of life, it is generally the male which
exists merely for purposes of reproduction.[7]
[7] C.W. SALEEBY, _Woman and Womanhood_, Chapter V. New York: Mitchell
Kennerley, 1911.
The differences in the nervous systems of men and women are now fairly
established on the quantitative side. Marshall has shown that if we
compare brain weight with the stature in the two sexes there is a slight
preponderance of cerebrum in males; but if the other parts of the brain
are taken into consideration, the sexes are equal.[8] Havelock Ellis has
carefully gathered the results of many investigators and declares that
woman's brain is slightly superior to man's in proportion to her
size.[9] But these quantitative differences are now felt to have
comparatively little significance; and of the relative qualities of the
brain substance in the two sexes we know nothing positively. In fact, if
we give a scientist a section of brain substance he cannot tell whether
it is the brain of a man or a woman.
[8] MARSHALL, _Journal of Anatomy and Physiology_, July, 1892.
[9] HAVELOCK ELLIS, _Man and Woman_, p. 97, Contemporary Science Series.
It is very probable that the average woman's mind is capable of much the
same activity as the average man's mind, given the same heredity and the
same training. They are both alike capable of remarkable feats of
imitation, and an ordinarily intelligent man could probably learn to
wear woman's clothes, and walk as she generally walks, so as to deceive
even a jury of women, if there were a motive to justify the effort.
Women also can perform, and they do perform, most of the feats of men.
At the same time it is desirable to note present differences in modes of
thinking and feeling, for while they may have been produced by
environment and ideals, and may hence give way to education, they must
be reckoned with in making the next steps. In the chapter on education
we shall discuss certain academic peculiarities of women's minds, but
here we are interested in seeing what fundamental differences
characterize the thinking of the sexes.
Women seem more subject to emotional states than men;[10] and this
general observation agrees with the fact that the basal ganglia of the
brain are more developed in women than in men, and these parts of the
brain seem most intimately concerned with emotional activity. Whether
emotion follows acts or leads to acts remains a disputed question, but
certainly emotion gives charm and significance to life and distinguishes
modes of thinking. Particularly in the dramatic art, this quality of
mind gives women special excellence. The fact that she more often
appeals to emotion than to reason, as cause for action, in no way marks
her as inferior to man, but simply as different. As Ellen Key says:
"There is nothing more futile than to try to prove the inferiority of
woman to man, unless it be to try to prove her equality."[11]
[10] HELEN BRADFORD THOMPSON, _Psychological Norms in Men and Women_, p.
171, University of Chicago Press, 1903.
[11] ELLEN KEY, _Love and Ethics_, p. 52. New York: Huebsch, 1911.
Most women think in particulars as compared with men. The individual
circumstance seems to them very important; and it is hard for them to
get away from the concrete. On the other hand, a man's thinking is more
impersonal and general; and he is more easily drawn into abstractions.
It is true that woman's domestic life would naturally develop this
quality but we are not now concerned with the question of origins. Most
women find it easy to live from day to day; the man is more given to
systematizing and planning. Thus in offices, men are more efficient as
heads of departments, while women handle details admirably. In public
life we have recently seen thousands of women eager to depose a United
States Senator, accused of polygamy, without regard to the bearing of
the concrete act on constitutional guarantees. Women have done little
with abstract studies like metaphysics; they have done much with the
novel, where ideas are presented in the concrete and particular.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|