THE MENTAL QUALITIES OF MEN AND WOMEN

New Zealand Tablet, 2 November 1911, Page 2222

THE MENTAL QUALITIES OF MEN AND WOMEN

The general discussion of woman’s rights has occasioned the frequent repetition of the question: Is man or woman the greater,—is he or she the superior being? The absurdity of this query was exposed by Bishop Vaughan, in a lecture to the Catholic Women’s League of Manchester, England. He says: ‘ It is like asking which is the better, the bee or the butterfly. Each surpasses the other, though in different qualities. It is like asking which is to be preferred, a good dance or a good dinner. Both are good in their way, but it is impossible to institute a comparison between them. The fact is that 'God, in His wisdom, designed man and woman for each other. If each contained the same bodily and mental qualities, gifts, and characteristics, then the attraction between the sexes would have no existence. But now one is the complement of the other, and each seeks in the other what is deficient in himself or herself, as the case may be. If the man is more resolute, the woman is more gentle; if the man has a profounder reason, the woman has a readier intuition ; if man has a stronger body, woman has a more, beautiful one. So conversely, if the woman is more persuasive, the man is more logical; if a woman makes the better nurse, man makes the better surgeon. If woman is more skilful with her needle, man is more skilful with his battle-axe; if the woman is more ready with her tongue, the man is more ready with his fist. In fact, man and woman share between them the gifts and the achievements and the duties of life; and it would be very difficult'to say, with any sense of confidence, which really bears away the palm. Man and woman possess their respective gifts, and each is first and each is best in those qualities that are peculiarly his or her own.’