The Natural Superiority of Woman

It has been said of woman that she is not superior to man; that she is his partner, or his complement; that she is emotional, and her mind smaller than the mind of man. All these attributes naturally please man and make him laugh; as for woman, they touch her and make her weep. And how can woman bow to those widespread superstitions? Poor creature that you are, O woman!... Man has accustomed you to believe that you are lower than he, and that he is the master and the ruler in this world. The claim that everything a person believes is a natural phenomenon is nothing but a superstition. Man's occupation of the high positions in our society is no natural phenomenon at all, but usurpation, domination, and the trampling of rights.

And now the time has come for you to come out of your darkness — that period of submission in which you were regarded as a captive of man, your life having no meaning except that you be subdued. Rise, and prove to him that you surpass him by your nature. Yes: woman is by her nature superior to man. This is a new idea which woman never before dared to broach and to display to her adversary, man.

It is true that most geniuses, painters, poets, philosophers, and so forth have been men, and that woman has shown weakness in all these fields. But is this weakness the result of a lack of intelligence in woman and of a want of aptitude in her?

Tell him that no trace of those beliefs remains, especially since the Second World War, when for the first time the chance was given to woman to take man's place in the kinds of work that had been reserved for men alone. Women became drivers of automobiles, workers in the factories and on the farms, and managers in the offices. And now that the world has advanced, it has become the right of some women to become members of parliament or to attend the parliamentary sessions. In the United States, for example, woman has reached even the rank of cabinet minister — the rank of which every man dreams.

From the social side we see woman's superiority plain, despite man's denial of her merit and her services. The sacrifices woman makes for the rearing of her children, her patience, and her modesty — all these are qualities that make her surpass man in humanity. Man must not forget that woman's function is to teach man humanity; and woman, likewise, must not allow herself to swerve from this function of hers by listening to those who say "that woman's place is the home, and that it is her duty to submit to man." All the foundations of life which we follow have their origin in the home. Woman has a great claim upon man for his rearing, his guidance, and his instruction; he is in her debt, and however many services and sacrifices he renders her, he can never repay that debt.

Woman is adorned with the greatest virtues with which a living being can be adorned. She is an unfailing spring of cooperation, love, and humanity, such as we rarely find in man.

And if we compare man with woman from the psychological and the physical standpoints, we see woman's superiority plain.

How can it be said of woman that she is more emotional than man, when she bore patiently the calamities that befell her after the Second World War? What she suffered proved to man her patience and the balance of her mind. The census taken in the insane asylums after the war showed that the number of the insane among men is greater than among women.

Woman must not think that man surpasses her by the size of his body and the heaviness of his weight, for the age of muscular superiority has passed and gone. As for strength of constitution, woman is the stronger. The diseases that strike man, and which he cannot withstand, trace their causes back to man's relation

to the chromosome; and death caused by any disease is more frequent among men than among women. It is true that woman is more often ill, but her recovery is easier and quicker than man's.

In sum, we may say that woman has greater endurance than man, and that her biological make-up bears shocks better.

There is no need to go deeper than this to prove woman's natural superiority over man. The mental, human, and bodily qualities woman possesses are enough to demonstrate her superiority.