"Are Women As Smart As Men?"

The absolutely scientific answer published a century ago

Sometimes a tour of the past requires a tour guide. But sometimes the past speaks for itself.

Following is an article I came across in Popular Science Monthly, published July, 1928. The headline caught my eyeballs like a grappling hook:

An Answer to the Age-Old Question: Are Women As Smart as Men?

As if that wasn’t enough to get you reading, the article begins with this arresting question: “Is your wife as smart as you?” (Note that the wife is not the reader. A woman? Reading Popular Science Monthly? Why would the pretty little things bother?)

How many times have you argued the point! Did you ever settle it? Here, for the first time, a psychologist of recognized ability presents a scientific answer.

At last! A scientific answer!

Read the whole article. Soak in the sexism. Gasp at the racism. Gaze in wonder at the sheer glorious stupidity of sentences like this: “Women do not count large among the geniuses because they do not want to be geniuses. They want to be women.”

One-hundred years ago this was what intelligent, educated people in the world’s most advanced country were reading in a popular science magazine.

As you read, count the number of times your eyes widen or your face scrunches up in a pained wince. The final tally is a complete, objective, and mathematically precise measure of the moral and intellectual progress we made over the past century.

It’s science, folks. You can’t question science.