Evolution of woman

Abstract

The context in which the theory of evolution was established was certainly not inclined to valorize women. Darwin himself, anti-speciesist and anti-racist, supported their biological inferiority. Things got worse in the following years, especially under the “pervasive influence” of Ernst Haeckel’s “recapitulation” theory, and did not improve even in the twentieth century, with very few exceptions. Worthy of note is the criticism that Elaine Morgan offers in the 1972 book The Origin of Woman.