Leta Hollingworth - The Nature of the Gifted Child, The Myths of Gifted Girls

Leta Hollingworth challenged and disproved stereotypical generalizations about women. This was her greatest contribution to the psychology of her sex, not to mention the general education of women or the specific education of gifted girls as well. Beliefs such as "To be a true woman means to be yet more mother than wife" (Hall, 1918) could not exist unchallenged.

Hollingworth showed that from earliest childhood in uncountable small ways both at home and in school, girls were taught the ideal legitimate expression of adult womanhood: a life of slavery to domestic chores and maternal concerns (Shields, 1990). Regardless of ability, women were more maternal than intelligent; higher education was a waste of time and dollars.

MENSTRUAL INTELLIGENCE.

Hollingworth railroaded the mythical, Madonna-like nature of women by derailing the premise that women's mental and motor abilities are cyclical, intimately connected with the ebb and flow of the menstrual cycle. By nature, women perform best during that part of the month when they are free from the disabling condition of menstrual blood flow. Not so, claimed Leta. Her study "Functional Periodicity: An Experimental Study of the Mental and Motor Ability of Women during Menstruation" (Hollingworth, 1914) clearly aborted that male myth.

She used six women and two males as controls. Their mental and perceptual-motor skills such as tapping, color naming, naming opposites, etc. were tested daily. During the entire three months of the study, three of the women were monitored while they learned to type. Hollingworth uncovered no trace of skill reduction associated with the phases of the menstrual cycle. Prior literature, much of which was unproven superstition or prejudice, was wrong. More recently, Sommer (1973) substantiated Leta's earlier claims. The aptitude of girls in school gifted or not, remains as constant as boys.

INNATE MALE SUPERIORITY.