REPRODUCTION AND SEX 565 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN: BIOLOGICALLY 

 CONSIDERED 



The Biological Aspect. — ^The position of woman, or that of 

 man, may be considered from many points of view — politically, 

 economically, ethically, and so on. Here our point of view is, of 

 course, biological; that is to say, man and woman are discussed 

 under the category of "organisms". They are studied as one would 

 study peacock and peahen, ruff and reeve, stag and hind, lion and 

 lioness — as creatures of flesh and blood, with characteristics that 

 can be measured. It need hardly be said that in a short section, we 

 cannot do more than give a few illustrations of the biological mode 

 of inquiry, leaving human considerations till later. 



The biological point of view is indispensable and fundamental — 

 simply because we are creatures of flesh and blood, but it is as 

 obviously partial, requiring to be supplemented by other considera- 

 tions which we may justly call supreme, since they have to do with 

 our rational and social life. This admission is continually made by 

 biological investigators of mankind, and it is therefore neither 

 generous nor useful to taunt them with their "breeder's point of 

 view". Nor is the taunt accurate, since the biological point of view 

 is wider than the breeder's, and considers the whole organism and 

 its whole life. It is even wider than the medical point of view, for 

 although medicine is to some extent applied biology, the science has 

 a larger scope than the art. Biology has mostly to do with what is 

 normal, and it concerns itself not with individual persons, but with 

 averages, or rather norms. 



Sex-dimorphism. — In contemplating Man and Woman with their 

 specific resemblances, and with their hundred and one differences, 

 biologists have before them what is familiar in the higher reaches 

 of animal evolution — ^namely, sex-dimorphism. No one without a 

 microscope can tell a male from a female sea-urchin, and in the 

 lower reaches of the animal kingdom an external uniformity of the 

 two sexes is very common. As we ascend the series, however, 

 dimorphism becomes more and more frequent and conspicuous. 

 The essential functions of males and females become more and more 

 different, their habits of life diverge, and to the primary differences 

 there are added all manner of secondary peculiarities. Yet there 

 are many birds and mammals in which the two sexes are practically 

 identical except as regards the reproductive system. 



Walking warily — since the difficulties and uncertainties are very 

 great — we hold to the view that there is a deep constitutional 

 difference between the male and the female organism — an initial 

 difference in the balance of biochemical changes. The female seems 

 to be relatively more constructive, relatively less disruptive. There 



