The Sexes in Science and History by Eliza Burt Gamble

Author:Eliza Burt Gamble [Gamble, Eliza Burt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781411462960
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Published: 2011-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Although the fact seems to be well substantiated that in certain portions of the earth, and at various periods in the history of the race, women have maintained their independence and protected their interests by force of arms, it seems quite as certain that actual warfare carried on by them has been confined to peoples among which male supremacy had but recently been gained, and among which a resort to arms represented the last act of desperation to which they were driven to maintain their dignity and honour. We have reason to believe, however, that even these cases have been exceptional; at least, from the facts at hand, we have no reason for thinking that at any stage in the history of women’s career, armed resistance to masculine authority has been uniform or protracted among them.

According to scientists, among the lower orders of life, males are considerably in the excess of females, and among less developed races men are more numerous than women. It has been shown in a former portion of this work that the advancement of civilization is characterized by a corresponding increase in the number of women among the adult population; hence their evident lack of numbers among primitive peoples, to say nothing of their probable aversion to war and bloodshed, would at once preclude the idea that their dominion was achieved through armed resistance to a foe so superior in numbers and in fighting qualities. By a natural law governing propagation— a law which determines the numerical proportion of the sexes, and which creates an excess in the number of that sex best suited to its environment, primitive women, had they relied on physical force, would have had little chance to maintain their independence.

In a former portion of this work it has been observed that it was neither to lack of numbers nor to their want of physical force that women were divested of their power; that it was not through their weakness, but through the peculiar course which the development or growth of males had taken, that under certain conditions women became enslaved.

Not merely from the facts laid down by naturalists regarding the peculiar development of the male, but from later researches into the conditions and causes which have influenced progress, it is plain that no restrictions on the range of sexual liberties could have originated in males. Hence the demand for a more refined state of society must have begun with females. This fact seems to have been perceived by Bachofen, but, as according to his reasoning, at an early period of human existence, women were slaves, exercising none of the powers necessary to personal control, it is difficult to conceive of any manner in which it was possible for them to rise to the social position and moral dignity ascribed to them in Das Mutter-recht.

According to the theory set forth by this writer, however, religion was the cause of the important change which at this time took place in the positions of the sexes.

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