Prejudice Against Women's Intelligence

In "Women's Brains," from The Panda's Thumb, Stephen Jay Gould argues against prejudice against women in terms of their intelligence or lack of it. It is fascinating that the "facts" he refers to from the 19th century, which were so widely accepted then as scientific evidence, seem so preposterous today. Nobody today would claim that women are less intelligent than men because women have a measurably smaller brain, but that is precisely what Paul Broca did in the last century.

Gould is trying to get the reader to see that women have suffered from great social prejudices of many varieties, and that stereotypes about their intelligence relative to men have kept them "in their place." It seems that he is merely making small points about the well-known fact that this culture has been run by men and for men, and that this culture fears and hates women. It is no surprise that science and scientists such as Broca reflect that prejudice. Again, to this reader, Gould's essay and argument seem clearly evident. He is not telling this reader anything he does not already know.

Gould is also saying that we cannot trust science and scientists to give us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. What science deals with in many cases---measurement---tells us only a part of the story, and often a misleading part.

Still, in case the reader is not aware of this connection between science and misogyny, Gould reminds us, using Broca to represent the most dangerous kind of sc

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n is that the panda should not be used as an example of adaptation with regard to its diet, a statement which could have been said far more briefly. What seems to interest Gould more is how human beings should respect nature even when nature does not live up to human expectations. That is, despite the fascination the apparently cuddly and playful panda has for human beings, the actual life of the panda is exceedingly boring, consisting primarily of eating bamboo, defecating, and sleeping. One aspect of the panda's life Gould might have explored, however briefly, is the matter of why the panda is built to be a carnivore and yet eats only bamboo today. What caused this drastic shift? Gould critiques a book on the pandas which he sees as dull in content and style, unlike his own essays, of course. Again, his basic, simple, not very exciting conceptual point is that the panda's "adaptation" to bamboo is not an example of true adaptation at all, essentially because the panda has hardly adapted to the diet well at all. Adaptation to Gould has far more to do with successful and effective changes wrought in the species biologically, not just behaviorally. With respect to the panda, on the other hand, what has taken place is exclusivel

Category: Psychology - P