Science and Gender: A Critique of Biology and Its Theories on Women (Athene series)

This book is concerned with the role of science in the creation of an elaborate
mythology of women's biological inferiority as an explanation for their subordinate
position in the cultures of Western civilizations. The theme of women's biological
inferiority has been both implicit and explicit in biological science since the time
of Aristotle. It is, I would contend, an essential theme for the ideology and
cultural practices of societies that require women's subordinance both in the
home, as homemakers and mothers, and in the marketplace, as underpaid workers
in the nurturing, helping, and domestic professions. It has been the particular
task assumed by some scientists to devise ways to measure, demonstrate, and
explain how the sexes are different and to establish biological bases for the
striking differences in their social, economic and political positions.