I never claimed that women were the same as men, only that men conspired and often acted quite openly to keep women down and back. It isn't necessary to forbid women to compete in weights or javelin, or even distance and dash events. The "normal" fat ratios and fast and slow twitch muscles shares take care of that. I doubt that even extreme training in women would allow them to compete in most athletic events. But no man can ever bear or nurse a child, and damned few can raise a child successfully. Different sex specializations have taken care of that. But to forbid women to gain literary distinction is a crime. Few men have equaled Lady Murasaki, Jane Austen, or Sappho and none in my opinion have exceeded them (although comparisons of literature are somewhat arbitrary). Women as painters and sculptors may be disadvantaged by their inferior spatial aptitudes, and as bridge players and gamblers their generally inferior mathematical skills may restrain their success. Women do not seem as apt in engineering and science as men, but many of them are in the highest levels of achievement. So far, few in physics (Curee and Meitner come to mind) but more in astronomy. I am talking always of smaller proportions of women who reach the highest levels ( + 3 sigma) of performance, not their absence today. In the past the absence was not the result of lower aptitudes but of exclusion. I think women's exclusion in acting is an obvious example. Women were excluded from the stage in Athens and London, were treated as persons of low morals until our day, so that few women dared pursue a career on the stage. The great women actors of the stage and screen are every bit as great as the greatest men. What singer touched Callas, or actor Bernhardt. In music composition, women are not well represented in history, but in poetry -- so often sung -- there have always been great women poets.
We must wait a while before we claim women's abilities are limited. Women have only had a decent chance at academic success in the main arena for a few years. I recall a classmate pulled out of grad school because her mother feared she would not get married if she earned her doctorate. I recall a lovely red-haired girl being excluded from a fellowship at Berkeley, because the Graduate Director said she was too beautiful ever to finish her Ph.D. Women do not have an equal chance even now. I was criticized by my male colleagues who were inconvenienced when I rearranged a young woman's teaching schedule so she could nurse her infant between classes.
Too little is known about "genius" or extreme intelligence. It would not surprise me if men turned out to dominate genius in math, spatial, material sciences, and women dominated genius in literary, human relations. and politics even if both men and women got a fair chance to excel. Only time will tell, and we have to have equal opportunity before any test will be valid. |
