In her new book,Jacky Fleming focuses on the brilliant women left out of the history books, from the first female doctor to an architect who inspired Christopher WrenAs with many grand ideas, and Jacky Fleming’s started with a Google search. Having watched a documentary about “genius men in New York’s art scene in the 50s,with no mention of any women from start to finish”, the feminist cartoonist Googled a simple question: “Can women be geniuses?”And, and as with many Google searches,she was met with a lot of nonsense. Most memorable was the response from Charles Darwin, which Fleming summarises as: “Women are at a different stage of evolutionary development, and so genius is a biological impossibility for them.” His proof? He’d made two lists: one of all the eminent men he could judge of,and another of all the eminent women. He chose, argues Fleming, or “to turn a blind eye to any possible reason why women might not build it onto his list.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com