Book dossier

The natural superiority of women

by Ashley Montagu

Ashley Montagu (1952). The Natural Superiority of Women. Macmillian New York "Dr. Montagu's The Natural Superiority of Women was a pioneer statement on sexism, first published some years before the emergence of the Women's Liberation movement. Even with the rise in Women's Consciousness today, the book remains a revolutionary volume, since it show the that superiority of women is a biological fact." From Back Cover. Additional Commentary "Woman knows what true love is; let her not be tempted from her knowledge by false ideas that man has created for her to worship Woman must stand firm and be true to her own inner nature; to yield to the prevailing false conceptions of love, of unloving love, is to abdicate her great evolutionary mission to keep human beings true to themselves, to keep them from doing violence to their inner nature, to help them to realize their potentialities for being loving and cooperative. Were women to fail in this task, all hope for the future of humanity would depart from the world".(p. 250) "I consider the theme of this book to be a most important one, for I am convinced, and I hope the reader will agree, that good relations between the sexes are basic to the development of good human relations in all societies" (p. 238.) "Women are the bearers, the nurtures of life; men have more often tended to be the curtailers, the destroyers of life." (p. 241). "Women must be granted complete equality with men, for only when this has been done will they fully be able to realize themselves" (p. 242). "All human beings should enjoy the rights that are theirs by virtue of their being human, and not one iota of their rights should ever be abridged on the ground of sex; but to secure them women will have to labor hard. It cannot be too often repeated that they will have to do most of the work themselves in improving their status. Getting laws passed will not be enough; the long hard pull will be to achieve full recognition and acceptance of their abilities in all phases of national and international life." (p. 243). "Human societies must be based on human relations first, and economic activities must be a function of human relations--not the other way round" (p. 243). "The sexes should not compete; they should cooperate and complement each other". (p. 245). "Women are the mothers of humanity; do not let us ever forget that or underemphasize its importance. What mothers are to their children, so will man be to man" (pp. 247- 248) "Women are the carriers of the true spirit of humanity--the love of the mother for her child. The preservation of that kind of love is the true function of women. And let me, at this point, endeavor to make it quite clear why I mean the love of a mother for her child and not the love of an equal for an equal or any other kind of love" (p. 248). Ashley Montagu (1952/1974). The Natural Superiority of Women