Women S Brains Essay

Paraphrase:
In the opening paragraphs, the readers are introduced to the thoughts of George Elliot.
Elliot is a female scientist who sought to discount the at the time widespread beliefs that women were naturally inferior to men, especially in regards to intelligence. In the eighteen hundreds, the leaders of European anthropometry were attempting to prove the inferiority of women. Fields such as anthropometry and craniometry dominated human sciences in this era and were widely utilized to prove the inferiority of varying races, classes, and sexes.
Paul Broca, A highly credible professor and the "jewel of nineteenth century science", published work so irrefutable and accepted that it was difficult to challenge. Broca's work drew conclusions based on the size of a woman's skull in comparison to that of a man's, suggesting that a parallel must be recognized between the smaller brain size of women and their consequential lower brain capacity. Broca believed that his work was the truth and no other research could denounce it. Broca's research reinforced the thought that women were subservient to men because of the common acceptance of his research. Although some scientists like Manouvrier, a "black sheep" in the field of anthropometry, attempted to reject his ideas, Broca's theory was completely sound from a scientific standpoint. Broca supported his thoughts with research displaying the larger brains of those men in advance societies and the evolution of the brain in regards to size as man gets more complex and intelligent. When addressing Broca's research, Gould has a clearly sarcastic tone suggesting that he does not agree with Broca's studies. Although accepted by many, a fatal flaw lied within the popular study, as Broca fails to account for the difference in body size in men and women, and that logically, a smaller body will have a smaller skull and overwhelmingly a smaller brain.
Backing up the claims that brain size was a main indicator of intelligence was Topinard,
Broca's chief disciple. In essence, he argues that men, the warriors and the ones with all responsibility, need a larger brain and more intelligence than the women they look after.
Topinard agrees that a woman's role was to nourish and be passive.
During the same years, Gustav Le Bon, a close follower of Broca's school, published a virulent attack on women. Le Bon compared the brain of a woman to the brain of a gorilla, which he argued implied the obviously present inferiority of women. Juxtaposing the mature brain of a woman with that of a savage or child, Le Bon's opinion on women is fully understood. Le Bon was extremely unhappy with proposed reforms giving the average woman the opportunity to an equal education, calling this idea a "dangerous chimera". Le Bon warns that an educated woman will undoubtedly lead to the destruction of family and tradition.
Much later, author Stephen Jay Gould, an evolutionary biologist and paleontologist reviewed
Broca's studies and revealed something other scientists had not caught. While Broca's numbers were sound, Gould argued that his interpretation of his collected data was all wrong.
Gould discovered many fallacies within Broca's research, stating that Broca jumped to illogical conclusions by basing one of his two biggest claims on one set of research containing thirteen skulls. As Gould studied more of his predecessors work, it became clear that Broca disregarded important factors, including the obvious difference in size of that of a man and woman, or explained them using faulty reasoning. Gould took into account other factors such as body build and degenerative diseases when denouncing Broca's research. Gould supports his assertion with evidence from many different sources, including research and hospitals.

Gould examines not only height, as Broca did, but body build in assessing Broca's research.
While Gould's new discoveries created many questions and could not

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