The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-10-07
Discussion Of the Sexes.

What grounds are there for say
ing that woman is Inferior to MANI?
inquiries DR.. Thomas Claye Shaw in
an article on "The Special Psychology
of Women" in the London Lancet.
DR.. Shaw is the eminent lecturer on
psychological medicine at st. Bar
tholomew's Hospital, in London. "To
speak of special psychology of wom-
en- when one happens to be male"
says DR.. Shaw, modestly, "presuppos.
es that one has to some extent such a
share in the form Of mental action
under consideration as will justify
the audacity Of criticising what can
be only partially experienced" This,
he goes on to say, is fully possible
only to a uni-sexual mind. In the
male and female minds there are such
profound differences that the one
must always be puzzle to the other.
Nevertheless, he declares, there are
many features common to both, and
it is quite possible to suppose So
ciety in which the intellectual posi-
tion Of the sexes was reversed. This
was the case in the old Basque prov
inces, where the women voted and
the judges were always women.
Up to adolescence, he says, there Is
little If any mental difference be-
tween the sexes. II the little boy
and the little girl were brought up
alike and dressed alike they would be
essentially alike.
What is the local sign of inferior
ity in women?" he asks. Hitherto
it has been shown chiefly by submis-
sion to authority, a smaller range Of
idealism, more delicate and there
fore less strong bodily organization
There are other signs, but will take
the three named as representative Of
the general relations of the sexes in
the past, just to point out that under
altered conditions of education and
environment these stimata of 'inferi.
ority' have almost disappeared. The
fact is that women are not inferior to
men; they are different from them,
scarcely perhaps comparable, in some
faculties SUPERIOR and to talk of 'in-
feriority' is like comparing two mass
es Of different composition and call.
ing one inferior because it is not so
large and gross. -.
Perhaps the fact that women have
not always had money had tended to
make them dependent, afraid to con-
tradict, more obedient, less assertive;
but now that the position Is so often
reversed we see that the real mind in
the sexes is the same, altered only by
social necessity and environment.
People run away with the idea that
mind in either sex is something very
complicated, very profound, and very
different in kind according as we see
it's manifestations in the man of the
woman. This is mistake. AS a
rule, thinking is very simple thing
scarcely more than reflex. One
sex might carry on the work Of the
world just as well as the other. Left
to itself without work or occupation,
mind degenerates into subservience to
the body. The man or the woman
with nothing to do spends the time
selfishly, cultivating the appetites,
to introspection. Inasmuch
as there is any difference between
the minds of the woman and the man,
it becomes an interesting puzzle to
the one to guess what is going on in
the other When from force of train
ing and similarity of environment 1t
is seen that the minds are essential
ly similar then interest disappears,
and life becomes monotonous."