result of the labour of the two
halves of humanity should not be found to be exactly equal?"

To this it may be answered, that it is within the range of possibility
that, mysteriously co-ordinated with the male reproductive function in
the human, there may also be in some directions a tendency to possess
gifts for labour useful and beneficial to the race in the stage of
growth it has now reached, in excess of those possessed by the female.
We see no reason why this should be so, and, in the present state of our
knowledge, this is a point on which no sane person would dogmatise; but
it is possible! It may, on the other hand be, that, taken in the bulk,
when all the branches of productive labour be considered, as the ages
pass, the value of the labour of the two halves of humanity will be
found so identical and so closely to balance, that no superiority can
possibly be asserted of either, as the result of the closest analysis.
This also is possible.

But, it may also be, that, when the bulk and sum-total of human
activities is surveyed in future ages, it will be found that the value
of the labour of the female in the world that is rising about us, has
exceeded in quality or in quantity that of the male. We see no reason
either, why this should be; there is nothing in the nature of the
reproductive function in the female human which of necessity implies
such superiority.

Yet it may be, that, with the smaller general bulk and the muscular
fineness, and the preponderance of brain and nervous system in net bulk
over the fleshy and osseous parts of the organism, which generally,
though by no means always, characterises the female as distinguished
from the male of the human species, there do go mental qualities which
will peculiarly fit her for the labours of the future. It may be, that
her lesser possession of the mere muscular and osseous strength, which
were the elements of primary importance and which gave dominance in one
stage of human growth, and which placed woman at a social disadvantage
as compared with her companion, will, under new conditions of life, in
which the value of crude mechanical strength as distinguished from high
vitality and strong nervous activity is passing away, prove as largely
to her advantage, as his muscular bulk and strength in the past proved
to the male. It is quite possible, in the new world which is arising
about us, that the type of human most useful to society and best fitted
for its f