Some Ponderings about the role of gender in our regard for intellect.
For centuries, humanity has produced with some regularity, geniuses,
which, in their diverse manifestations has served every aspect of
human endeavour. We have recently lost a widely accepted genius –
Stephen Hawking – the man who showed us the ultimate fate of black
holes. He inherits a legacy stretching back to our earliest times. The
person who invented the wheel must have towered over the intellects of
his/her clan folk, but the one who invented the axle must have had a
comparatively stratospheric IQ.
We don’t know the names of most of history’s brilliant people. It is
not till the Greeks that we start to put monikers on them.
However most of the ones we can name, have one thing in common. They
are all men.
Imagine where humanity would be now if we had not suppressed the
intellectual talents of 51% of those among us! What would the female
Da Vinci have painted? What would Mozart’s musical equal have
delivered? Did Isaac Newton have a feminine counterpart? Could she
have shown us even more wonders?
I keep hearing our public servants being enjoined to do more with less
but perhaps we should focus on using all of the resources we have, we
cannot afford the luxury of dismissing half our population.
It just isn’t smart.
(c) 2018 Paul Hannah
