Gender and Women’s Studies: Women's Brain
Choose one of the readings from Gender and Women’s Studies that we have dealt with between weeks 2 and 5 of this class (please see the syllabus, posted on Quercus, for the weekly readings). Write a 250– to 300–word summary of the main points of the article, chapter or excerpt. This summary should be written in your own words and should give the reader a clear idea of the author’s arguments. Please do not use direct quotes for this section—we want you summarize in your own words. Write a 250– to 300–word critical response to the reading. This means analysing the way the author presents their arguments in the text, giving your reaction to it and providing clearly articulated reasons for your reaction. Do you find the arguments the author makes valid? Are there aspects of the text with which you disagree? Why? Which do you find to be the most important elements of the reading you chose? You may use quotations in this section only (not in the summary).
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Chapter 16: Women’s Brain
Summary
The chapter explores women's brains through the lens of past scholars who write their views on feminine capacity. George Eliot points out how European anthropometry leaders measured their inferiority. The author describes how intelligence testing replaces skull measurement as the preferred means of comparing sexes and classes. In the quest to weigh women's brains, Paul Broca, a professor in clinical surgery, states that women have smaller brains than men and, therefore, could not equal them in intelligence. Broca's argument rested upon two sets of data: the larger brains of men in modern societies and a supposed increase in male superiority through time (Hobbs and Rice 145). There is a claim of evolutionary pressures upon dominant men and passive women that arises when there is a discrepancy in the measurements of prehistoric skulls from L'Homme Mort cave.
Gustave Le Bon, a great misogynist, also published an article that attacks women, especially on their intelligence. He points out that psychologists, poets, and other novelists argue that women’s intelligence is closer to those of children and savages than they are to humans. The chapter points to the Topinard publication that refutes Broca’s assertions. Correction for height and age reduces Broca’s measured difference of 181 grams by more than a third to 113 grams (Hobbs and Rice 147). The chapter points out that scholars should weigh Broca's school of thought in the context of a general theory that supports contemporary social distinction. Scholars like Maria Montessori appreciate Broca's work and views of other studies, su...