Saini leavens her careful dissection of the science of gender differences with surprising accounts of the hunting prowess of Agta tribeswomen in the Philippines, the habitual affairs of married Himba mothers in northern Namibia, and the violent dominance of female bonobos over males (the inverse of chimpanzee behaviour). Disparities evaporate when one takes a more holistic view of the variation between individuals, or extends the investigation to other animal species or human tribes, or simply repeats the experiment with better controls. Step by step Saini reveals that in all these areas, early findings of clear differences between men and women – almost invariably to the advantage of men – have frequently unravelled upon deeper and broader scrutiny.

She examines the evolutionary and ethnographic evidence for differences in behaviour, work patterns, social power and sexual promiscuity, and digs into the intriguing theories that are competing to attribute the menopause to the influence of patriarchy or of the role of grandmothers in childcare. Saini looks at the bias towards male subjects in medical research, and peers into studies of hormonal and gender influences on brain size and structure. The book ranges widely over the scientific investigations of the differences between male and female in humans and other animals. Saini peels back the meritocratic veneer that still coats much of science to reveal a shabbier interior. In doing so she uncovers how science has been no better than any other field of human endeavour in freeing itself from the historical and cultural baggage of societies that have long treated women as the second sex. Subtitled “How science got women wrong and the new research that’s rewriting the story”, Inferior explores the science of gender difference, which turns out to be far more complicated than Darwin supposed. The author of On the Origin of Species wrote back : “there seems to me to be a great difficulty from the laws of inheritance, (if I understand these laws rightly) in becoming the intellectual equals of man.” While Darwin’s scientific work has certainly withstood the test of time, his views on the capabilities of women have not, as Angela Saini reveals in her quietly powerful new book, Inferior.

W hen Mrs Caroline Kennard, an active member of the women’s movement in Boston, wrote to Charles Darwin in late 1881 seeking reassurance that his theories of evolution didn’t entail the inferiority of women, she was disappointed by the great man’s reply.

Inferior book angela saini