The Sexes in Science and History. Eliza Burt Gamble
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portion of human existence on the earth, the forces which tend toward degeneration have been stronger than whose which lie along the line of true development.
We are assured that the principles of construction and destruction are mutually employed in the reproductive processes, that continuous death means continuous life—the katabolic or disruptive tendencies of the male being necessary to the anabolic or constructive habits of the female. As it is in reproduction, so has it been through the entire course of development. Side by side, all along the line, these two tendencies have been in operation; the grinding, rending, and devouring processes which we denominate Natural Selection, alongside those which unite, assimilate, and protect. As a result of the separation of the sexes there have been developed on the one side extreme egoism, or the desire for selfish gratification; on the other, altruism, or a desire for the welfare of others outside of self. Hence, throughout the later ages of human existence, since the egoistic principles have gained the ascendency, may be observed the unequal struggle for liberty and justice, against tyranny, and the oppressors of the masses of the human race. From present appearances it would seem, that the disruptive or devouring forces have always been in the ascendency. The philosophy of history however, teaches the contrary. With a broader view of the origin and development of the human race, and the unexpected light which within the last few years has been thrown upon prehistoric society and the grandeur of past achievement, a close student of the past is able to discern a faint glimmering of a more natural age of human existence, and is able to observe in the present intense struggles for freedom and equality, an attempt to return to the earlier and more natural principles of justice and liberty, and so to advance to a stage of society in which selfishness, sensuality, and superstition no longer reign supreme.
The status of women always furnishes an index to the true condition of society, one or two superficial writers to the contrary notwithstanding. For this phenomenon there is a scientific reason, namely: society advances just in proportion as women are able to convey to their offspring the progressive tendencies transmissible only through the female organism. It is plain, therefore, that mankind will never advance to a higher plane of thinking and living until the restrictions upon the liberties of women have been entirely removed, and until within every department of human activity, their natural instincts, and the methods of thought peculiar to them be allowed free expression. The following is from Mr. Buckle’s lecture on “The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge”:
I believe and I hope before we separate to convince you, that so far from women exercising little or no influence over the progress of knowledge, they are capable of exercising, and have actually exercised an enormous influence; that this influence, is, in fact, so great that it is hardly possible to assign limits to it; and that great as it is, it may with advantage be still further increased. I hope, moreover, to convince you that this influence has been exhibited not merely from time to time in rare, sudden, and transitory ebullitions, but that it acts by virtue of certain laws inherent in human nature; and that, although it works as an undercurrent below the surface, and is therefore invisible to hasty observers, it has already produced the most important results, and has affected the shape, the character, and the amount of our knowledge.
Through the processes involved in the differentiation of sex and the consequent division of functions, it has been possible during the past six thousand or seven thousand years (a mere tithe of the time spent by mankind upon the earth) for women to become enslaved, or subjected to the lower impulses of the male nature. Through the capture of women for wives, through the exigencies of warfare, the individual ownership of land, and the various changes incident to a certain stage of human existence, the finer sensibilities which characterize women have been overshadowed, and the higher forces which originated within them and which are transmitted in the female line, have been temporarily subdued by the great sexual ardour inherent in the opposite sex; it is not, therefore, singular that the degree of progress attained should appear to be wholly the result of male activity and acumen. Yet, notwithstanding the degradation to which women in the position assigned them by physical force have been obliged to submit, their capacity for improvement has suffered less from the influences and circumstances of their environment than has that of men. As the higher faculties are transmitted through women equally to both sexes, in the impoverishment of their inheritance on the female side, men have suffered equally with women, while, through their male progenitors, they have inherited appetites and habits (the result of a ruder and less developed structure) which weaken and degrade the entire constitution.
Doubtless, so soon as women have gained sufficient strength to enable them to maintain their independence, and after the higher faculties rather than the animal propensities rule supreme, men, through the imperfections in their organism, and the appetites acquired through these imperfections, will, for a considerable length of time, find themselves weighted in the struggle for supremacy, and this, too, by the very characters which under lower conditions are now believed to have determined their success.
It is not unlikely, however, that through Sexual Selection the characters or qualities unfavourable to the higher development of man will in time be eliminated. The mother is the natural guardian and protector of offspring; therefore, so soon as women are free they will doubtless select for husbands only those men who, by their mental, moral, and physical endowments are fitted to become the fathers of their children. Only those women will become mothers who hope to secure to their offspring immunity from the giant evils with which society is afflicted. In this way, and this way only, may these evils be eradicated.
Under purer conditions of life, when by the higher powers developed in the race the animal propensities have become somewhat subdued by man, we may reasonably hope that the “struggle for existence,” which is still so relentlessly waged, will cease, that man will no longer struggle with man for place or power, and that the bounties of earth will no longer be hoarded by the few, while the many are suffering for the necessities of life; for are we not all members of one family, and dependent for all that we have on the same beneficent parent—Nature?
Although the two principles, the constructive and destructive, are closely allied, the higher faculties have been acquired only through the former—the highest degree of progress is possible only through union or co-operation, or, through the uniting and binding force, maternal love from which has been developed, first, sympathy among related groups, and later an interest which is capable of extending itself not only to all members of the human race, but to every sentient creature. There is, therefore, little wonder that for thousands of years of human existence, the female principle was worshipped over the entire habitable globe as the source of all light and life—the Creator and Preserver of the Universe.
We are only on the threshold of civilization. Mankind may as yet have no just conception of their possibilities, but so soon as, through the agencies now in operation for the advancement of the race, the “necessities” of the male nature no longer demand and secure the subjection of women and the consequent drain on the very fountain whence spring the higher faculties, a great and unexpected impetus will be given to progress.
The fact that a majority of women have not yet gained that freedom of action necessary to the absolute control of their own persons, nor acquired a sufficient degree of independence to enable them to adopt a course of action in their daily life which they know to be right, shows the extent to which selfishness, twin brother to sensuality, has clouded the conscience and warped the judgment in all matters pertaining to human justice. So closely has women’s environment been guarded that in addition to all the restrictions placed upon their liberties, a majority of them are still dependent for food and clothing on pleasing the men, who still hold the purse-strings. Yet Mr. Darwin, the apostle of original scientific investigation, concludes:
“If men are capable of decided prominence over women in many subjects, the average mental powers in men must be above those of women.”
PART II
Prehistoric Society
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