INTELLECTUAL POSITION OF WOMAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6501, 16 February 1882, Page 4

INTELLECTUAL POSITION OF WOMAN.

The “Pall Mall Gazette” says of M. Delaunay’s scientific inquiry: He shows that among some lower forms of animal life the female is superior to the male, but that as we ascend in the scale the superiority of the male in all respects becomes more and more pronounced. So in the case of the human race;in the lower types of humanity the two sexes are very nearly equal, as is also the case among illiterate peasantry and the laboring class. As we ascend to the higher types of humanity and in the social scale, the difference between the sexes tends more and more to widen, the advantage being on the side of the male. So also when the subject is looked at in point of age ; up to about twelve years girls intelleotmally are, if anything, superior to boys, but after that the latter leave the former far behind. Physiologically, M. Delaunay tries to show, the same result comes out. His main conclusion is that woman is only undeveloped man ; that the pre-eminence of the feminine over the masculine sex, being met with only among certain inferior species, or races, marks a lower degree of evolution. But as even he admits that this evolution is largely dependent on surrounding conditions, his investigation rather strengthens than weakens the position of those who contend that no obstacles should be thrown in the way of the complete intellectual development of “undeveloped man.”