Why are women considered less intelligent?
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Answer: When Srila Prabhupada is referring to women as less intelligent that is not referring to intelligent processing ability that goes on in the name of intelligence. We can see obviously from our observation there are in some cases where women are less more intelligent than men, on the other hand this statement can also not refer to the soul, because at the level of the soul the men and the women both are same. Where is this less intelligence coming from if it is not related at the material level and it is not related at spiritual level, where it is related with ? Actually it is related with the interaction between the material and the spiritual level.
In the vedic culture , intelligence is the ability to differentiate between matter and spirit and intelligence begins by understanding that I am not the body , i am the soul. So this bodily misidentification is strong for everyone in the material world , both men and women. But in general it is stronger for women because women has a form that is attractive and alluring to man and to a large extent for a women if she is not spiritually minded , her sense of self identity, her self worth comes largely from her bodily form. In that case, to understand that the self is not the body, is that much more difficult . So the misidentification of spirit with matter is much stronger when he spirit is interact in a female body. And another aspect of this misidentification with the female body is that the female body leads to the excess of emotionality than compared to rationality . So in general women are more emotional and men are more rational . So to some extent by rational philosophy, by exercising our rational faculty one can understand philosophy . So in that sense male body is more suitable for understanding philosophy. This is a general principle, it may not apply to all specific cases , and in that sense even the capacity to be over whelmed by emotions is greater in the case of women, of course this is not necessarily a disadvantage for the function of women as a mother the capacity to experience emotion is vital . In fact very often children behave in rational ways, and if women who were to act as mothers were to see their children only through rational spectacles, then they would not be able to offer the kind of unconditional love that they have to offer to the children, at least in their formative years. So the profuse emotions that the female body enables the soul to experience is a blessing to help that soul perform the function of a mother. Now women can have two roles, one is as objects of temptations, or they can be mothers , they can be the source of shelter . So in the vedic culture the second role is emphasized and glorified , that women are not source of sexuality but of maternity. they are shelters not of motherhood. So when this aspect is emphasized then the emotionality of women can be used to , for care of the family members, specially the children, and it can help them to grow, and if the women becomes a devotee, then her emotionality can help her to experience devotional emotions and pass on those emotions and impressions to the children . So in this way if women functions as mothers primarily then whatever may be the weakness of the particular kind of body that they have , that weakness does not harm them, rather it helps them and it helps them , help others. In contrast the modern society downplays and to some extent even denies the maternal aspect of the women, and it over hikes the sexual aspect of women. So this leads to increase the bodily consciousness among women and among men. So that’s why when the bodily misidentification increases , that is the sign of less intelligence. So the idea that women are les intelligent is not to restrict them into capacity and potentials or to degrade them, but it is to basically recognize the different bodies gives us different kinds of limitations and endowments, and to minimize the harm caused by the limitations and to maximize the benefit that comes from the endowment. The social order in which the women were primarily the mothers and not allurers , was what was the standard in the vedic culture, and what is recommended even today in the spiritual culture. The modern society by treating women primarily as sex symbols may give women more freedom and more attention, but that freedom and attention doesn’t lead to greater respect and security . It actually leads to greater insecurity and greater deeper depersonalization. When a women is seen just as a sex symbol, is not really being seen as a person, is seen as an object. So it is depersonalizing, dehumanizing view, and when women are trained to be primarily sex symbols then when the sex appeal and the body decreases ,as it would happen in few years , inevitably , then the whole sense of self worth of a women is lost. But if a women’s self worth is coming from identifying herself as a mother , then a women cannot be a sex symbol through out her life, she can always be a mother throughout her life. And that is why the maternal role of the mother should be emphasized and the sexual role should be minimized. That’s what the vedic culture does. And the less intelligence is not something to minimize or exploit women, but to protect and cherish women so that their spirituality can also be developed in a way that is beneficial for the full society and beneficial for themselves. thankyou