Review of "The Genius of Women" by Janice Kaplan

“The Genius of Women” by Janice Kaplan discusses genius women in history who have been overlooked due to the patriarchy. It also analyzes how the world today overlooks genius women, how the misogynistic bias starts, and how we can cultivate a world where genius women are recognized.

I first want to clarify that in this book “genius women” does not mean women with an IQ of over 140, as it is traditionally defined. IQ does not measure genius in the way it is discussed in this book. It means women who have contributed very meaningfully to academia or other arts, women who have overcome obstacles despite the patriarchy, women who have persisted, for that, in itself, is a type of genius.

One of the first points this book makes is that genius needs to be natural, encouraged, and recognized for a woman to be successful. There have been many smart women in history. An example the book gives is Mozart’s sister and Einstein’s wife. Mozart’s sister, Maria, was an incredible composer; some say she was even better than Mozart himself. However, because she was not encouraged and given the resources to continue her craft, Mozart took the lead and became recognized. She was a genius, but could not become one in the eyes of history. Einstein’s wife, Mileva Marić, helped him significantly with his famous Theory of Relativity, which transformed the physics field forever, but never received credit, because she was overpowered by the fame of her husband. The book brings up another point related to the case of both these women: that not only is fame needed in order to be recognized, but that those who do the recognizing of genius in the first place are usually men. Therefore, fame being earned through male validation only perpetuates the patriarchy of genius.

The story also tracks at what age bias starts. Kaplan says, “The bias begins very early. At age six, to be exact. At least that was the finding from another recent study Leslie and Cimpian conducted, where they told little children a story about a person who was 'really, really smart.' Then they showed them four pictures—two men and two women—and asked who the story was about. Up until age five, the boys and girls pointed to the grown-up who looked like them—the boys picked one of the men and the girls picked one of the women. But at age six, it changed. Asked to identify the 'really, really smart' person, the boys picked a man—and the girls did, too.” This patriarchy forces many women in any field, say, physics, to be successful by seeing themselves not as a physicist but as a female physicist, an exception to the norm of a regular physicist, which would imply the default physicist as male. Therefore, women throughout history have realized that the best way to combat patriarchy in any field, but particularly in STEM, is just to ignore the sexism instead by being fearless and confident that being a “female physicist” is just as valuable as being a regular physicist, whatever that means. However, the confidence that is required to not see the threats that women in STEM face should not be necessary for women. Success for women in STEM should not just be reserved for people whose personality is more confident and fearless, and yet, such is the case. Trying to dismantle not only the want but also the requirement for women to be validated by men to pursue STEM or whatever their field of interest is is the main goal in putting greater value on women’s genius.

I absolutely loved this book because it gave me so much deeper insight on genius women in history. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is truly a must-read for anyone interested in STEM, feminist issues, and contributing to gender-equality.