ABSTRACT
It was a widely held 19th century belief that science was a liberating intellectual force. The scientific method and the new scientific theories were not seen simply as means of exploring nature and matter., but as tools for approaching moral and social problems as well. The powers of the scientific method were believed sufficient to sweep away old prejudices and misconceptions while building up a new social and intellectual order. No social or even political problem was judged too great or too complex for this new approach and, especially in the last quarter of the century, scientists turned to their disciplines for the solution of a variety of vexing social problems. One of these harassing questions was the “Woman Problem,” and rejecting old moral and theological data, scientific minds resolved to turn their expertise to a study of women and of women’s place: “The question of woman’s sphere, to use the modern phrase, is not to be solved by applying to it abstract principles of right and wrong. Its solution must be obtained from physiology, not from ethics and metaphysics…. The quaestio vexata of woman’s sphere will be decided by her organization,” wrote a prominent physician in 1874.1 The Quarterly Journal of Science felt that Darwinism suggested a sound approach to the Woman Question: woman’s role could be illuminated by applying the master’s ideas of natural selection, differentiation and specialization to the study of social and sexual relationships.2 While intellectuals might disagree on which scientific theory might best apply, there was never any doubt as to who would do the studying, examining and theorizing.
