Inferior

May 15, 2017
Prepare to be enraged. Journalist Saini dives deeply into gender science to find out why it has always been assumed that women were the weaker, thus the inferior, sex. In this deceptively slim yet exhaustively researched book, she wastes little time on talking tough, instead speaking on the record with male and female scientists, perusing correspondence, describing research, and relating the findings in dozens of historical reports on the female sex dating back to Darwin. Alternately bemused and appalled, Saini hangs in there while discussing how analysis from a study of newborn babies supported the idea that females were more empathetic and males more mechanically minded, how the smaller size of female brains (by five ounces) meant for decades that they were, of course, less intelligent, and how assertions about superior male hunting skills diminished the role of women in the history of human survival. In admirably subtle prose, Saini questions, considers, and refuses to accept traditional generalizations. A brilliant approach to a long overlooked topic, Inferior is impossible to ignore and invaluable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)