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Assignment 02

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were many social debates happening throughout Europe. People were trying to figure out where women fit in the world – both socially and politically – as the issues of women’s rights became a prevalent topic of conversation. In her article “Skeletons in the Closet”, Londa Schienbinger argues that the medical community stepped in to try and solve the question of where women fit into society. Scientists at the time believed they could answer these debates with anatomical and biological findings. By exploring the physical anatomy of the female body, and then comparing it to that of men, anatomists hoped to explain how physical differences in the two sexes could potentially explain mental and social differences. Furthermore, these “natural inequalities” could help justify a woman’s place in social hierarchy.

 
Schienbinger gives us many examples of how these anatomical differences between men and women helped shape their social identities. For instance, the finding that women had larger pelvic bones and wider hip structures meant that they were naturally fit for giving birth. The idea of motherhood became a role for women that was “destined” based upon their anatomy. Similarly, in the 1820s, findings that “woman’s skulls were larger in relation to their body size than men’s – but then, so were children’s” (64) provided a basis for scientists to compare skull size to intelligence. A larger skull in women and children meant that they were similar in intellectual maturity, therefore less mature than men. Schienbinger would argue that this comparison of women to children was a common social identity in the late eighteenth century. She states, “middle-class wives were on average ten years younger than their husbands; it is not surprising that middle-class women should have appeared ‘childish’ in comparison to their husbands” (66).

 
Schienbinger also explains that in order for anyone to participate in the debate over rights and social order, they needed to be able to back up their reasoning with scientific proof. This was particularly difficult for women because they were not allowed in the scientific realm in the first place. During this time men found women to be “incapable of scientific endeavor” (71) and therefore they could not argue their position on suffrage in an intelligent manner. Men were able to justify gendered roles based on scientific evidence and women were left out of this debate completely.