In the March 1882 issue of Popular Science Monthly, Miss M.A. Hardaker reasons as follows:

The necessary outcome of an absolute intellectual equality of the sexes would be the extinction of the human race. For if all food were converted into thought in both men and women, no food whatever could be appropriated to the reproduction of the species. But, as an actual fact, women do not consume so much food as men; nor can they do so while their average size remains so much smaller. Moreover, of this smaller amount of food consumed by women, some must always be spared for the continuance of the race; so that the sum total of food converted into thought by women can never equal the sum total of food converted into thought by men. It follows, therefore, that men will always think more than women.

(Newman, L.M., Men’s Ideas/Women’s Realities, New York: Pergamon, 1985)

As an exercise, spend 30 minutes or so thinking through this passage. Do you agree with Miss Hardaker’s conclusions? In a page or two (you may use the front and back of this sheet), try to lay out and evaluate her reasoning.