Lester Ward - Our Better Halves

Ward Studies Women and Their Effects on Furthering Society

By: JOHN HANSEN

Ward believes that in order for society to become more advanced, it is necessary to give women a more prominent role and to change the male and female selection process.

In his essay Our Better Halves, Lester Ward argues that studies from nature show that the female sex is relatively stable, while the male is typically variable and unstable (Ward, 274). Based on that premise, Ward goes on to assert that before we can expect to see any real advancement in our civilization, it is necessary to rethink our priorities and to promote the role of women in society. And while he is somewhat vague in explaining how we are to realize an advanced civilization, Ward suggests that it will be through changes in the male and female selection process:

But it is no longer simple selection of male qualities, as in the lower animals; there is now going on an opposite class of influences by which a true male selection is bringing about modifications in woman, and this had progressed so far at the beginning of the historic period that the ornamental characters had been, as it were, transferred from the male to the female (Ward, 270).

Only the Best

Thus, Ward seems to suggest that the advancement of civilization could be achieved if we instituted “modifications” of the natural selection process; however, nowhere does he specify exactly how such a process would occur. That is, was Ward envisioning a biological selection process whereby individuals with “advanced” physical and mental characteristics would be mated? Or, was he suggesting that society should reeducate our children to advance a strictly female agenda?

A Focus on Females

Given the nature of some of Ward’s assertions (that the male sex is unstable; that the primary purpose of the male sex is simply to perform a sexual function to “enable” the female), it only seems fair that he be held to a strict standard of providing a factual basis for his conclusions.

As stated above, Ward relies heavily on studies of other animals to support his claim that society needs to focus its attention on the female sex in order to transform our civilization. However, Ward offers no scientific data to explain how we might modify the selection process to promote the characteristics of the female sex. Without any evidence to show his readers how this grand modification of the sexes would occur, it must be assumed that Ward’s assertions are based upon conjecture. That is, to reach Ward’s conclusion, we must assume that civilization has somehow failed to reach sufficient progress; and we must also assume that because men have been historically “unstable,” it follows that woman should be elevated and enabled in order to advance civilization.

In conclusion, Lester Ward offers no direct evidence to support his claim that the male of the human species is too unstable to achieve sufficient progress for the advancement of civilization. Likewise, Ward has failed to offer any scientific study to support his claim that only the female offers the necessary stability to advance the human race. At best, Ward’s theories are unproven conjecture; at worst, they are fraudulent attempts to manipulate studies of nature which have no bearing on the advancement of civilization.

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