The Rudolf Steiner Archive

49. The Superstition About Women's Brains

[ 1 ] The Association for Working-Class Women and Girls held its first lecture evening again after a long summer break. Dr. Steiner spoke about the superstition surrounding women’s brains. In public life, gender differences should play no role; achievement itself is the sole measure of worth. The inferiority of women is an age-old myth that was often expressed in drastic ways in times past. In 1377, women were banned from attending the ancient Italian University of Bologna because: “Woman is the head of sin and the cause of the expulsion from Paradise.” Any conversation with him was to be strictly avoided, and violation of the ban was to be severely punished. As a mitigating factor for these strict gentlemen, it should be noted that they were all Catholic clergy—unfortunate men condemned to celibacy. The same was true of the participants in that council, to which the question was submitted as to whether women possess an immortal soul. One seems to hear an echo of those times when Professor Bischoff, in the 1860s, declared that he would tolerate a woman in his lecture hall no more than he would a Kaffir or a Hottentot. The famous chemist Liebig had his female audience member sit behind a stove screen so that the students would neither harass her nor be disturbed by her. In practical work, women have demonstrated their aptitude for scholarly professions even while the theory still proclaimed that differences in physical constitution entailed a fundamental difference in the minds of men and women. In the developmental history of the human individual from its very inception, the speaker found proof of the essential equality of the soul, even if later influences shape the mind in different directions. The inheritance of intellectual traits from both parents to sons and daughters without distinction also speaks strongly against a separation of intellectual faculties based on gender. The speaker expects that women’s as-yet-untapped intellectual gifts will bring about improvements in many areas of intellectual life, education, legislation, and the shaping of social life toward happier forms of existence. The inspiring lecture was met with enthusiastic applause and warm approval.

[ 2 ] The next meeting, at which Dr. Franz Oppenheimer will speak, will take place on September 16.