exclusively male
profession to shame. If the work of the average man required half the
mental agility and readiness of resource of the work of the average
prostitute, the average man would be constantly on the verge of
starvation.

5. The Thing Called Intuition

Men, as every one knows, are disposed to question this superior
intelligence of women; their egoism demands the denial, and they are
seldom reflective enough to dispose of it by logical and evidential
analysis. Moreover, as we shall see a bit later on, there is a certain
specious appearance of soundness in their position; they have forced
upon women an artificial character which well conceals their real
character, and women have found it profitable to encourage the
deception. But though every normal man thus cherishes the soothing
unction that he is the intellectual superior of all women, and
particularly of his wife, he constantly gives the lie to his pretension
by consulting and deferring to what he calls her intuition. That is to
say, he knows by experience that her judgment in many matters of
capital concern is more subtle and searching than his own, and, being
disinclined to accredit this greater sagacity to a more competent
intelligence, he takes refuge behind the doctrine that it is due to some
impenetrable and intangible talent for guessing correctly, some half
mystical super sense, some vague (and, in essence, infra-human) instinct.

The true nature of this alleged instinct, however, is revealed by an
examination of the situations which inspire a man to call it to his aid.
These situations do not arise out of the purely technical problems that
are his daily concern, but out of the rarer and more fundamental, and
hence enormously more difficult problems which beset him only at long
and irregular intervals, and go offer a test, not of his mere capacity
for being drilled, but of his capacity for genuine ratiocination. No
man, I take it, save one consciously inferior and hen-pecked, would
consult his wife about hiring a clerk, or about extending credit to some
paltry customer, or about some routine piece of tawdry swindling; but
not even the most egoistic man would fail to sound the sentiment of his
wife about taking a partner into his business, or about standing for
public office, or about combating unfair and ruinous competition,
or about marrying off their daughter. Such things are of massive
importance; they lie at the foundation of well-