December 16, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



865 



average more leisure; there are four times as 

 many women as men engaged in teaching. There 

 does not appear to be any social prejudice against 

 women engaging in scientific work, and it is diffi- 

 cult to avoid the conclusion that there is an 

 innate sexual disqualification. . . . But it is pos- 

 sible that the lack of encouragement and sym- 

 pathy is greater than appears on the surface, and 

 that in the future women may be able to do their 

 share for the advancement of science.' 



The article affording this quotation com- 

 mands attention on account of both the method 

 used and the results reached. In a field where 

 impression, conjecture and personal bias play 

 a large, if not a determining role, one must 

 ■welcome such a well-considered plan for em- 

 ploying a statistical and hence impersonal 

 method. Figures have no feelings. Perhaps 

 none of the results set forth are more striking 

 than the statement that in 1910 only eighteen 

 women are to be found in the first thousand 

 scientific persons. A search for the causes of 

 this fact is in itself a sociological task merit- 

 ing some expenditure of scientific effort. 

 Would the author of the article referred to be 

 willing to call his " conclusion " a hypothet- 

 ical explanation, and to admit one or two 

 competing hypotheses? 



As matters stand at present in America a 

 young woman can not fairly complain that 

 she is denied opportunity to study science. If 

 one institution refuses admission to her, 

 another equally good opens wide its doors; if 

 some eminent professor denies her a place in 

 his laboratory, another, equally eminent, will 

 welcome her. But is such opportunity all 

 that is involved? Did the young woman have 

 a fair chance as a little girl? It would ap- 

 pear, on the face of it, that girls and boys in 

 these days and this country enjoy equal op- 

 portunities. They may read the same- books 

 and play the same games; they pass through 

 the same grade schools and, in most towns, 

 the same high school; finally, they receive, as 

 a rule, the same preparation for college. But 

 is even this all that is involved? 



Whoever will watch groups of girls and boys 



' " Further Statistical Study of American Men 

 of Science," Science, November 11, 1910. 



in any grade school must realize that out of 

 sight, in the homes, distinctions are intro- 

 duced which result ultimately in mental 

 handicap for the girl. This discrimination 

 manifests itself primarily in compelling her 

 attention in matters of dress. Observe the 

 hat constructed for the little girl's wearing 

 and contrast it with the cap worn by a boy of 

 her own age. Good brains go to waste under 

 a hat like that because it must receive the 

 attention that the boy may save to bestow on a 

 hundred things worth while. The rest of the 

 girl's apparel corresponds of course to her 

 hat. What is the prevailing style, how shall 

 her clothes be made and trimmed, and does 

 she look pretty in them, are considerations 

 that grow with the girl's growth. If she is 

 destined to be a member or, let us say, an asso- 

 ciate member of the leisure class she can not 

 proceed far in her teens before her social 

 environment compels acceptance of the notion 

 that a girl must be, first of all, attractive and 

 pleasing — if possible, a social ornament. A 

 girl is free to elect science in the high school, 

 but what does the freedom avail if science 

 appears undesirable on the ground that it in 

 no way contributes to her accomplishments. 

 Further than this, a girl loses as a rule the 

 informal preparation for science that a boy 

 secures. The proprieties and dainty clothing 

 cost her many a lesson that her brother learns ; 

 and who concern themselves to take a girl to 

 the blacksmith shop, the power-house, and the 

 stone-quarry, to the places where the steam- 

 shovel and the pile-driver are at work. Yet it 

 was a little girl who once asked, " Why do the 

 cars lean in when they go around a curve ? " 

 a little girl also who concluded her explana- 

 tion of a home-made filter by saying, " And 

 so, you rinse the water with gravel." Given 

 the same circumstances, including the circum- 

 stance of encouragement, and it is hardly to 

 be doubted that the rational curiosity to know 

 the causes of things would be found in girls 

 as it is in boys. Opportunity is rendered in- 

 effective and the world of natural phenomena 

 inviting to observation and analysis is denied 

 to girls because they are assigned to an arti- 

 ficial environment demanding an emotional re- 



