War is over and a world is to be reconstructed. In these 
stirring days we are casting aside as handicaps our old prejudices, 
beliefs, traditions, weighing all things in the balance, 
testing habits and influences., with purposes mighty 
and far reaching, the work of women was never more 
vital, more basic. Not only does the world acknowledge 
her individuality and its claim to consideration, not only 
is her economic value clearly a factor to be reckoned with, 
but over and above all is the supreme necessity for her 
racial efficiency. The old idea that motherhood was incompatible 
with self expression, that in yielding to the 
demands of marriage a woman renounced her individuality, 
has given place to the larger conception that she 
who is best prepared physically, mentally, ideally, for the 
duties of home is also prepared for all her obligations as 
an individual, as a citizen and as a member of the industrial 
and social order. 

In this transition period, too often, the woman is not 
playing fair. She is holding on with both hands to the 
privileges granted to her because of her weakness and 
dependence, and at the same time is demanding the freedom 
of equality, sometimes, however, with lack of vision, 
the new freedom has entailed no new idea oJ a wider, 
more perfect filling of her own great place in the world, 
but has led only to a servile imitation of the man-an attempt 
to make herself into what Mr. Walter Lippmann 
has characterized as an "amateur male." 1 The time has 
come for us to build a new conception of woman and 
her possibilities. This new conception, we shall find, in 
no way denies the great task eternally imposed upon her 
by nature-the great task of bearing and rearing sound 
children. On the contrary, a true realization of herself 

1 Lippmann, Walter, "Drift and Mastery," New York; Hen·ry Holt & Co., 
1917; p. :z:u. 


will make her more efficient here as in all other fields. 
There is no antagonism"he_tw~el!~.hecduty to the race and 
her own development. 0 :'J!l~.:J~~i~b:~~ ~hich we all to a 
greater or less degree bow down, consciously or unconsciously, 
is that alJ: diff.eieti'ces·'o:f;..-:'~x~~~~~~'rent. Men 
and women are reaiiy·mtJre alik'e·''thaii udall"Ke j many of . 
the differences, actual as well as apparent, are the artificial 
product of hal:iif aria.educ':it:Ton·basea-onov·er:emphasis 
of preconceived differences. We have been so 
engaged in the contemplation of these differences as a 
(esult that we have failed to go back to them as a cause; 
so blinded by the pre-judgments of traditional thinking 
that we have too often neglected to apply the scientific 
method which would discover whether these apparent 
unlikenesses are inherent or removable. The fact is, 
woman has done her specialized work in the world less 
well because .hampered by this false psychology; and not 
only she, but the race also, has suffered from a false 
conception of her weakness and lack of endurance. We 
may profitably consider for a moment this old idea of sex 
difference and its influence. 

We translate life constantly into terms of sex. The new 
baby has its layette prepared, pink for the boy and blue 
for the girL We begin to make the difference at birth 
and continue it through every period of the woman's life. 

The little girl of my generation, hearing constantly, 
"You must not do this. You must not do that. It is not 
lady-like," had this bogey overshadowing her childhood, 
curbing her normal impulse toward physical activity. 
She was provided with a doll and expected to sit quietly 
playing house; and if her muscles demanded activity, if 
her restless spirit voiced her feelings by shouting, if she 
ran and played ball with her brother, she was designated 
a tomboy. Have we not 'right here the beginning of her 
muscular weakness? Limit the activity of the little boy 
in the same way, and the product would be equally ~veak. 

2 


· As Miss Woodbridge2 points out, "even the nursery 
rhymes carry out the ancient tradition:" 

"Clap hands, clap hands, 'till Father comes home, 

For Father has money but Mother has none 

Oh, dear, what can the matter be, 

Johnny's so long at the fair? 

He promised to bring me a bunch of blue ribbons 

To tie up my bonny brown hair. ~ 

Curly locks, curly locks, will you be mine? 

You shall not wash dishes nor yet feed the swine, 

But sit by the fire and sew a fine seam, 

And feed upon strawberries, sugar and cream." 

Miss Woodbridge goes on: 

"When we see the girl crooning over her doll, we call 
attention to the natural mother, while the 'natural father' 
latent in the little boy beside her has never been called 
out." Have we not here one of the reasons for the small 
family? Not infrequently it is the man, not the woman 
who objects to children. 

Dr. Lilian Welsh and Dr. Mary Sherwood3 quote Dr. 
Playfair as follows: "Up to the time of puberty there is 
comparatively little difference between the sexes in· 
health, in disease or in any other condition. Conventionally 
they are separated, and different modes of education 
and training will soon make such differences as 
there are more marked, but boys and girls play together 
and are on a footing of perfect equality, there being little 
essential which distinguishes one sex from the other." 

We have gone somewhat beyond the following ideals 
since 1904, when Dr. Sherwood and Dr. Welsh wrote: 

"As education progresses the boy is trained with the 
idea that he is to be the head of a family, to bear civic 
responsibility, to assist in guiding national affairs, to be 
economically independent. The girl is trained to directly 
opposite notions; she is expected to be helpless and 
dependent, and this is undoubtedly a distinct, hygienic 
disadvantage." 

2 Woodbridge, Elizabeth, "The Unknown Quantity in the Woman Movement," 
Atlantic ltfonthl,, Apr., 1914; pp. S1o-?ZO. 

• 3 Welsh, Dr. Lilian, and Sherwood, Dr. Mary, in Dr: Howard Kelly's 
''Medical Gynecology," p. 52; Appleton & Co., New York, 1904. 
3 


The modern world, perhaps, shows greater realization 
of this real lack of difference in boys and girls, but this 
"habit of expectancy," to use Miss Woodbridge's highly 
expressive phrase, unconsciously influences our thoughts. 

Even to-day if a woman has not rolls of fat over her 
hips put there by her inactivity, she is told that she 
has a boyish figure, even though her broad pelvis fulfills 
every measure assuring an ample birth canal. If she 
has well developed abdominal muscles, so essential to 
painless menstruation and vital to the normal support of 
the abdominal organs, she is characterized as having the 
abdomen of a man. 

I leave my garden where I have been spading all morn-· 
ing but, attired again in my conventional garb mentally 
as well as physically, I . realize, with amusemen_t, how 
unconsciously I am thinking, as I pass my neighbor who 
still has her spade in her hand, "What an unsuitable occupation 
for a woman!" 

This preconceived notion of what a woman should be 
and do makes even the scientist occasionally blind to 
clear observation of what woman is and does. Professor 
Sedgwick,4 the able biologist, forgets all scientific methods 
and discusses votes for women with heat and an inaccuracy 
which calls forth a storm of protest from equally 
able scientists with a broader point of view. 

Where the woman problem is concerned, it is rare to 

find a man able to discuss any phase of it with coolness 

and on an impersonal basis. His knowledge of women is 

usually confined to a small group-wife, daughters, sis'": 

ters, mother; what they are, how they react to a given 

question, obscures the larger view. 

The truth is; as we are beginning to realize, that the 

world is divided into males, females and human beings. 

The third group which is rapidly increasing in num


bers is composed of men and women no less sexually 

perfect, but who put sex, important as it is, in its proper 

relation to life. They neither obtrude offensively their 

• Sedgwick, Prof. \Villiam T. Interview in N. Y. Sunday Times, Jan. S, 
191-J.. Also replies by Dr. Simon Flexner, Dr. Frederick Peterson Dr. W. H. 
Howell, Dr. Franklin Mall and others jn N. Y. Times, Feb. :rs, ;914-· 
4 


femaleness or maleness by immodesty in dress, if they are 
women, nor, if they are men, give offense by their manners 
and habits. . 

Fundamental and vital as sex is, it is not a limitation; 
woman's efficiency, individually, economically and racially, 
has been tremendously lessened by this over-emphasis 
and at enormous cost to the life of the world. 
Although I profoundly believe in the full importance of 
woman's work as wife and mother, yet this belief does 
not in the least degree connote sex limitations. On the 
contrary, the study of the muscular strength of college 
women, which Dr. Martin and the speaker5 have made, 
shows that there is no difference in the muscular strength 
of women and men which is due to sex as su<;h. The differences 
which are frequently found are due to differences 
in the use of the muscles, brought about by ·conventional 
limitations of activity or dress. It would naturally follow, 
then, that a.woman who has had a normal development 
should be able to do any work that a man of the 
same size and weight may profitably do. Our study also 
clearly demonstrated that a high degree of muscular 
power in the woman in no way lessened her racial efficiency 
and that the lack of muscular power, as in. the 
pectoral muscles as I shall show you later, is a distinct 
racial disability. From this it would follow that, while 
there may be no physical reason why women who are 
physically fit should not have much the same activities 
as the men, the fact remains that at the present time these 
will not always best promote the well-being of women un.
der existing conditions. Too often a great majority in any 
group of women have had these conventional limitations 
of activity and dress operative over so long a period that 
not only are there physical, but mental changes as well. 

The importance of dress in relation to woman's strength, 
efficiency and endurance is appallingly great. That it 
cannot be ignored is obvious. Nowhere in the whole 
range of hygiene has traditional thinking operated to such 
an extent to the detriment of the woman as in this one subject.
of dress and fashion. 

5 Mosher, Clelia Duel, and Martin, Ernest Gale, "The l\fuscular Strength 
of College Women." Journal dm. Jl,fed. dssot:., Jan. 19, 1918. 

5 


While th,e fashions of to-day favor hygienic clothmg 
and a normal-sized waist and no longer is the delicate, 
undeveloped. woman the type of beauty, yet to prove the 
close connection between an idea and its product we have 
only to look at the lady of the mid-Victorian period who 
made a virtue of necessity. Amy Louise Reed6 in "Female 
Delicacy in the Sixties," quotes Cornelius O'Dowd 
in Blackwood's for April, 1865: · 

"Who gladly accepts the hoop and sweeping skirts as 
an admission that they are very women after all, unfitted 

. by nature and constitution to move easily or to feel in 
their place in the bustle of crowds and the stir of active 
out-of-door life." 

What would he say to the efficient, untrammeled woman 
worker of the·greatwar? Again to quote Miss Reed: 

"'Is a small waist admired by gentlemen?' cries one 
enthusiast in the Queen. 'I believe there is not one young 
man in a thousand who does not admire the graceful 
slenderness of the waist.' Another lady writes to the same 
magazine to ask, 'What is the smallest sized waist that 
one can have? Mine is sixteen and a half inches!'" 

Much water has gone under the bridge since those 
days of feminine delicacy.· The world war has shaken 
us out of some of our conservatism. For more than a 
year hundreds of American women wore some sort of 
uniform. Rich and poor alike wore the same uniforms, 
making for the obliteration .of lines of class in a democratic 
people. Distinction more often rested, in consequence, 
on ability than on the influence of sex. But 
whether you liked or disliked the uniform dress, the 
fact remained that the women were one hundred per cent. 
efficient; thus, war has again demonstrated that the ordinary 
dress of women, attractive or unattractive, does not 
make for health or endurance. 

Unhygienic clothing has brought about far-reaching 
results. These have been studied by many observers and 
in various ways. Let us consider for a moment the effects 
on the type of respiration. In I 892 when the speaker 

6 Reed, Amy Louise, "Female Delicacy in the Sixties." Century Maga:cine, 
Oct., 1915, pp. sss-864


6 


began her' study of the physiology of women, every 
physiology taught that woman breathed costally and men 
abdominally and went on to say that the difference in 
type of respiration was a provision against the time of 
gestation-in other words, for the time when the gravid 
uterus would interfere with the descent of the diaphragm. 

. In r894 the writer7 
, while at Stanford University, and 
Dr. Fitz8 at Harvard, independently and almost simultaneously, 
demonstrated that there· was no sexual difference 
in the type of respiration. In arriving at this conclu~ion 
the writer studied some eighty-four women and children 
and five men. The costal type of respiration so frequently 
found at that time was due to the compression of clothing. 
'A further studf of fifteen pregnant girls in a rescue home 
and serial observations, made month after month on a 
pregnant woman, made possible the demonstration that 
pregnancy does not require a special type of respiration for 
the woman; while the respiratory movements tend to become 
equalized in the three regions, the diaphragmatic 
respiration persists as late as the eighth month and even 

the beginning of the ninth month of pregnancy. 

In addition, the undesirability of the costal type of 
respiration is further shown by· these additional facts: 
the movements of the diaphragm materially aid the expulsion 
of the bile from the common duct, as has been 
proved by Heidenhain and his pupils according to 
N aunyn. We may here have one of the factors in the 
production of gallstones, which are of more frequent 
occurrence in woman that in man, another undesirable 
result of the unnecessary costal type of respiration. Although 
greater numbers of women to-day bre~the diaphragmatically, 
there are far too many women who have 
not yet learned that the development and use of the ab-· 

7 Mosher, Clelia Duel, "Respiration in Women." Preliminary repon as 
thesis for M.A. Degree, Stanford University, May, 1894-Also paper presented 
at California Science Association, ]an. 3, I896. 


s Fitz, G. W., "A Study of Types of Respiratory Movements." Journal of 
Experimental Med., Vol. I, No.. 4. 1896. 


s Moshe~ Clelia Duel, "The Frequency of Gallstones in the United States." 
(Read befo~e the Johns Hopkins Hospital Medical Society, March 4, 1901). 
The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Vol. XII, No. 125, August, 1901 • 


. 7 


domina! muscles are vital to the health and strength of 
women. 

As Mrs. Hale has suggested, history tells us· that the 
skirt was originally a man's garment. And it does still,among 
some modern nations, belong to the uniform of 
the warrior. We not infrequently saw on the streets of 
Paris a soldier wearing his full short skirt of white. Besides 
these eastern men with their swarthy faces, their 
fierce moustachios, gay coats, there were also, the "Ladies 
froin Hell," with their short pleated skirts of tartan. 
No one would associate weakness, incapacity or effeminacy 
with these men, who wore without loss of caste what 
we have grown to regard· as the badge of womanhood .. 
The skirt, however, as modified by the vagaries of fashion, 
has a direct bearing on the health, development and efficiency 
of the woman. This we shall now consider. In 
our study of the muscular strength of college women, the 
most striking difference between the strength"of men and 
women was found in the hip and knee extensions and 
flexions, as shown in Table I. 

"TABLE I.-PERCENTAGES IN HlP AND KNEE EXTENSIONS AND FLEXIONS 
. Ex~~ion ~ron ~~~fan Ffe~~~n 

Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. 

Men .•.•••. •••••••••••••••.•••••••• ; • 3.70 3.20 3.30 1.75 
Women • • . • . • • • • • • • . • . • • • • • • •• • • •• • • 3.42 2.69 3.175 1.30 


. The limitation of movement due to the conventional 
skirt and the consequent limitation of activity will probably 
fully account for the difference. 

In 1893-96I made a series of observations on the clothing 
of ninety-eight young women. The average width of 
skirt was then 13.5 feet-the widest 15 and the narrowest 
9 feet. The weight of the skirt alone was often as much 
as the entire weight of the clothing worn by the modern 
girl. In 1917, in the study of the muscular strength of 
forty-eight college women, I had an opportunity to observe 
again two of the women of this earlier group-one 
was then fifty-three years old (No. 37) and the other, 
forty-five years old. Neither had worn a corset; both 
had been physically active and had worn their skirts 

• From "The Muscular Strength of College Women with Some Consideration 
·of its Distribution," by Mosher, Clelia D., and Martin, E. G., in Journ. Am. 
M~d. Assoc., Jan. 19, 1918. · 
8 


supported. Both of these older women, who had been 
great bicycle riders when in college, showed unusual 
power in the muscles concerned in hi'p and knee extension. 
The older one, who sometimes rode her wheel as much 
as three thousand miles in a year, exceeded in percentage 
distribution even the percentage of the greatest men 
athletes. But it is interesting to note that both of these 
women, on the other hand, showed greater weakness in 
the flexors of the hip and the flexors of the knee than 
even the average of the younger women whom we examined 
and whose power in the extensors of the hip and 
the extensors of the knee were so. much less. It is with 
the flexor muscles that the skirt interferes. 

*TABLE 2.-PERCENTAGES IN A CO~IPARATIVE STUDY OF HIP AND KNEE 
FLEXIONS AND EXTENSIOXS 

Hip Hip Knee Knee 

Extension Flexion Exter•sion Flexion 

Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per cent. 
Case 37 (age 53 3/12 years)......... 3.93 2.425 3.61 1.195 
Average percentage athletic men...... 3.70 3.20 3.30 1.75 
Average percentage women............ 3.42 '2,69 3.175 1.30 

These older women had had their muscular actJVJtV 
interfered with by the skirt over a great many years, 
while the modern young women, not only had been ham-· 
pered for a much shorter period of time, but the interference 
with these muscles had been much less by reason 
of the light weight and shorter skirts. 

That these deductions are correct was shown by Case 
No. 41, a charming young girl, sixteen years and two 
months old. This young girl has a strength factor of 
26.6, 0.2 greater than her brother fourteen months older, 
and the same strength factor as the average of the 203 
athletic men examined by Dr. Martin and Mr. Rich.10 
The boy and girl were brought up with the same occupations 
and physical activities until the girl was twelve 
years old, when she was graduated from her overalls into 
skirts and into some of the conventional, physical limitations 
of women. She is very feminine in type, an unusually 
good tennis player, is musical and is intellectually 

10 Martin, E. G., and Rich, \V. H., "Muscular Strength and Muscular 
Symmetry in Human Beings-H. Adult Males." llm. Journ. Phys., Vol. 47, 
~o. 1, Sept., 1918. 

9 


of great promise. She showed only slight variation from 
her brother in hip . extensions and flexions, considered 
either in pounds or in percentage distribution. 

•TABLE 
3.-COMPARISON OF CASE 41 AND HER BROTHER 
Hip Hip Knee Knee 
Extension Flexion Extension Flexion 
Lb. % Lb. % Lb. % Lb. % 
Case 41 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 155 4.41 95 2.85 113 3.21 50.5 1.43 
Brother 14 months older••••••••••••••••••• 159 4.41 102 2.80 113 3.14 62 1.72 

· Case No. 36, aged 42 2/I 2, is married, has borne three 
children and has a strength factor of 25.3. She said: "I 
have played running games and a little football, climbed 
trees, ridden horseback, played tennis in college and had 
four years of gymnastics. When there was· anything to 
do, such as moving a piano or a trunk, it never occurred 
to me to call 'a man. I did whatever there was to do . 

. I have never worn a corset and my clothes have been 
loose and supported. When fashion demanded three 
petticoats, I wore one." In this. middle period of life, 
she has retained her youthfulness and sparkle to an unusual 
degree and is intellectually brilliant. The skirt 
may bring about pelvic congestion and favor the development 
of enteroptosis when worn unsupported; this is 
equally true when worn unsupported and without a corset. 
At this point it may be desirable to give in some 
detail the method by which we arrived at the conclusion 
that there is no difference in the muscular strength of 
men and women, which is due to sex as such. The world 
war had called women to tasks totally unsuited to the 
accepted standards of women's physical strength and capacities. 
At that time, therefore, when our nation needed 
to mobilize every particle of woman power as well as 
man power, it seemed well to determine with as much 
definiteness as possible what that power was. In the 
case of woman particularly, it was useful to know whether 
these unprecedented demands on her strength and activities 
were liable to make her racially less efficient and 
whether many of the handicaps .were real or only traditional. 
In hope of gaining more exact information concerning 
the muscular strength of woman, this study was 
undertaken. · 

10 


· · Dr. Martin's m:ethod11 
· of testing muscular strength, 
originally devised for the study of cases of anterior poliomyelitis, 
was used. Forty-five average, healthy, college 
women, most of whom had always been physically active, 
although, in the majority of the instances, not specially 
athletic, were studied. 

In the progress of this work, certain inprovements in 
the manner of applying the spring-balance method to 
adults were devised. · 

The following groups of muscles, both on the right and 
the left side of each woman, were tested: pectorals, latissimus 
dorsi, anterior and posterior deltoids, forearm extensors 
and flexors, wrist extensors, thumb adductors and 
either wrist flexors or finger flexors. The wrist flexion 
test was found by some of the women to cause lameness. 
The finger flexion was substituted in the later testing. 
These muscle groups were tested with the subject stand-· 
ing. The following tests were i:nade in the horizontal 
position: dorsal flexion, inversion and eversion of foot, 
adduction and abduction of thigh, hip extension and flexion, 
knee extension and flexion. 

Thus, a full test included observations of thirty-six 
groups of muscles. Each test was repeated two or three 
times, thus insuring as accurate observ~tion ·as possible by 
securing the maximum cooperation of the woman on 
whom the tests were made. The highest record correctly 
made was used in each case. 

*TABLE 4.-AVERAGE, MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM STRENGTH FAC


TORS OF FORTY-FIVE WOMEN ARRANGED IN AGE GROUPS 

Ages 16-20 20-25 25-35 35-56 All AgesNo. of cases .••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 10 26 5 4 45 
Average strength factor .................. 21.5 23.8 23 20.8 -22.5 
Maximum strength (actor •••••••••• .,••••• 26.6 30.4 25.3 25.3· 30.4 
Minimum strength factor •••.••••••••••••• 18.4 19.3 18.7 16.6 16.6 

These forty-five women were tested one hundred and 
twenty times; there were ninety-five full tests and twentyfive 
partial tests. Every woman was tested from two to 
five times, and 3,5_76 muscle groups in the forty-five·. 

11 Martin, E. G., and Lovett, R. \V., "A Method of Testing Muscular Strength 
in Infantile Paralysis," Tlu Journal Jl. JU. Jl., Oct. 30, 1915, p. 1512. Lovett, R. 
W., "The Treatment of Infantile Paralysis," p. 152. 

11 


' IZ

women were tested. Dr. Mosher rnade schematograms 

of all the women studied. · . 

A convenient method of classifying the persons studied 
Is in terms of the strength factor, which is simply the 
figure obtained by dividing the total strength, as determined 
by the tests, by the weight. In Table 5 the strength 
factors for. the entire group of cases are summarized. 

In Table 4 the cases are grouped in accordance. with 

their strength factors. A study of the table shows that 

the first group, which has the lowest average strength fac


tor, 18.78, is made up of the tallest and heaviest women, 

with 50 per cent. of them overweight, the average over


weight being 30~I pounds. In this group, also, three of 

the eight women are immature physically, though not 

sexually, and six, or 75 per cent., show a marked lack of 
. coordination. 

The third group has an average strength factor of 

26.77, which is slightly greater than the strength factor of 

the group of athletic college men. This group of women 

is especially remarkable because it is made up almost uni


formly of the most perfect feminine type. Two cases, 

(28 and 42), which fall somewhat below this standard, 

will be discussed later. Members of the third group of 

women are, on the average, shorter, more compactly built 

and lighter in weight than members of either of the other 

two groups. 

We find here, with only two, exceptions, the women 

with the highest degree of coordination. The most strik


ing fact in connection with the women of this group is, 

perhaps, their history in regard to exercise. Without 

~xcep~ion, they have always been physically active, play


mg with brothers and boy cousins without distinction of 

sex, sharing the same games and having the same ac


tivities. 

12 Mosher,. Clelia D., "The Schematogram-A New Method of Graphicallv 
Recording Posture and Changes in the Contours of the Body" School and So-ciety, 
Vol. 1, May 1, 1915. ' · 

12 


• TABLE 5.-FORTY-FIVE W~₯lffNMlfA.Ji~~rlN GROUPS ACCORDING TO 
Strength Strength Factor StrengthFactor Above 20and Factor 

20 and Below Less than 25 25 and Over 
Number of cases •••••••.••••..••.•• ~...... 8 • 26 11 
Strength Factor: 

Average • • • . • • • . . • . • • • • • • . . • . • • • • • . • • • • 18.78 22.3 26.77 
Maximum • ••••••••••..••.•••••••••••••• 20 24.6 30.4 
Minimum . • • . • • • • . . • • • • • • • • . . . • • • • . • • • • 16.6 20.3 25 

Total Strength: 
Average ••••••.•• ."••..••••.•••••••••••••2,789 2,960 3,513
· M!lx_imum • • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••3,220 3,330 4,130


Mtn1WUW • •............................2,320 2,565 3,060Average age .......',..................... 27 23.5 23.9/12'
Maximum age .... • • • . • • .. . . • • • • • • .. .. • • • • • 56 58.3 42.4/12:r..:linimum age • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 18 18 16.2/12Average height .. •... . .. .. .. .. .......... .. 65 64.5 63.7 ' 
l\Iaximum height .. • . .. .. .. .. . . .. •...... .. • 68.9 67.7 66.4 
Minimum height .. .. .. •.. ..• • .. ...... . . ..• 62 60.2 59.6 
Average weight .. .... . . .. .. .. .. . .....• • • . • 148.9 133.6 131.6 
l\1aximum weight .......................~... 170.8 154.5 165.5 
Minimum weight • • • • ..• • . • .. •.. • • ..• .. • • . 119.8 116.4 112.9 
Overweight (5 pounds) (4) (12) (5)

Average .... •. .... . ..................... 30.1 15.78 15.5 


32.5 39.5
~ini:::: :::::::::;::::::::::::::::::: ~~-S 5.4

5.3 

Underweight (5 pounds) (5) (2') 
Average ••........••.••.•.•••.••••..••• 11.4 9.1 
1\Iaximum •.•...•.••••.••.•••••••.•.•••• 17.8 13.0 
:\1inimum •.•..•••..•••.•••..•••••••••.• 5.2 5.3 


t None over five pounds. 

· Case 28, with a strength factor of 28-4, and Case 42, 
.with a strength factor of 25.5, also rather immature, fall 
somewhat below the high average standard of type ·in 
this group, although they both, in regard to the secondary 
sexual characters and functionally, are normal women. 
Both belong to the tall, lean type, though they lack the 
poise and balance found so uniformly in this group. They 
are precipitate in action and show a lesser degree of coordination 
than the other members of their group. 

. Four married women, ranging in age from thirty-four 

:to fifty-nine years, gave an average strength factor of 20.8. 
The maximum strength factor in this group is 25.3, which 
is considerably above the average of the whole group 
of forty-five women and is exceeded by only five others 
in the whole series of women studied. The four women 
of this group have borne thirteen children. 

A general comparison of the series of forty-five college 
women with the series of athletic college men by 
Dr..Martin and Mr. Rich yields some suggestive results. 

TABLE 6.-STRENGTH IN POUNDS OF 203 ATHLETIC MEN AND 45 WOMEN 

Maximum :Minimum Average 
203 men • • ...... .... .. .. .. .... ....• • .... .. .. • 5800 2000 3900 
45 women .. .. .. .. ..• ..•.. .. ...... .. .. ....•.. • 4130 2320 3060 


,It ·is interesting to note that Table 6 shows that the 
strength of the weakest woman was 320 pounds. greater 
than the strength of the weakest man. 

13 


·Let us now consider briefly the strength of the different 
muscle groups as shown in Table 7· 

TABLE 7.-AVERAGE PERCBNTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF STRENGTH IN 1\IEN 
AND WOMEN 
Feet: 

Athletic Men .Women Children 
Dorsal Flexion • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . . • • • • . • . . • . . 2.85 3.07 

3.20 
Inversion ~........................................... 1.90 1.95 
Eversion • . • • .. • • . • . • .. • .. .. • • .. • • .. • • • .. .. • • • • • • • 1.80 


1.35 
Thighs:
Adduction .•••••••·.•••••••• • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.60 1.68 
Abduction . • • • • • • • • • • . • • . • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.50 1.475 
Extension . • • • .. • .. .. .. • • .. .. .. . • • .. • . • . . . .. .. .. .. • .. • • 3.70 3.42 
Flexion .......................... ; • • • . • • • • 3.20 2.69 


Knees: 

Extension • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • .. .. .. • • • • • • • • • • • 3.30 3.175 
Flexion • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . • • . • • . . • . • • • • • 1.75 1.30 


Shoulders: 
Pec~o~ali• •..• : •••••••. ; • • • • • . . • . .. .. . . • • • 2.35 2.1 
LatiSSimUs dors1 .. • • • .. .. • .. • • .. .. .. .. • .. .. • . • • • .. . • • 1.45 1.65 
Anterior deltoid • • • • . . • • • • • .. .. .. . .. . •• . ... 2.1 2.45 
Posterior deltoid • • • • • • • • • • • . • • . • . . • • • • • • • • 1.35 1.80 


Forearms: 

1.3

~~t;k.~o~. ::::·:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~:~s 1.85 

Wrists: 
Extension •••••••••••..•.••..•• ; • • • • • • • • • • 1.00 1.30 
Flexion .. . • • • • • . • • • • . • • • . • . • • • • • . • • • . • • . • 1.35 1.90 


. The pectoral muscles are commonly relatively stronger 
in man than in woman, the average percentage of total 
strength being 2.35 in man and 2.1 in woman. Twelve 
women have equalled or exceeded the average of the men. 
Case 35 from the second group, a married woman who 
has borne two children, has in her pectorals 2.52 per cent. 
of her total strength. This .difference between men and 
women, which is, therefore, apparently not one of sex, 
may be explained as due to difference in use. Constant 
ball playing, punching and thrusting make up a very 
large part of the boy's exercise. His clothing does not 
limit the use of the pectoral muscles, as do a woman's 
waist, brassiere, etc. Moreover, although dress and convention 
have discouraged the use of the pectoral muscles 
in woman, their weakness is a distinct .racial disadvantage. 
If the pectoral muscles were well developed in the 
woman, we should find fewer pendulol,ls breasts in the 
youp.g girl, as well as in the older woman. 

The latissimus dorsi muscles are better developed in . 
the woman than in the man, contributing 0.20 per cent. 
more of the total strength of the women than of the man. 
The buttoning of woman's waists and skirts in the back 
brings these muscles into constant use from childhood, 
while the boy's clothes are always more conveniently 
buttoned on the side or in front. 

14 


The anterior deltoids in woman create 0.35 and the 
posterior deltoids 0.45 per cent. more of the woman's 
total strength than the man's. This difference again is 
readily explained as due to the difference in use-that is, 
to the woman's constant practice of putting up her hair. 
It is common knowledge that the girl with heavy hair 
cries with fatigue day.after day as she is taught this conventionally 
necessary use of her. muscles. An athletic 
woman, not considered in this series of observations, tells 
me that the fatigue of putting up her heavy· hair on the 
top of her head is still so great that she has been forced 
to dress it low after repeated attempts. 

There is no occasion for a habitual use of the deltoids 
among men and, furthermore, their heavy coats tend to 
limit the freedom of action of the deltoids. 

Forearm extensions and flexions are better developed 
jn man than in woma~, making 0.20 and 0.50 respectively 
more of the man's than the woman's total strength. Here, 
again, woman's close-fitting waists and sleeves and the 
conventional view of her physical delicacy, which would 
protect her from lifting all heavy weights, might at least 
partially explain this difference. 

Wrist flexion is found to be o.55 and wrist extension 

0.25 per cent greater in the woman as compared to the 
percentage of distribution in the man. This is readily 
explained by the constant, sm.all movements in sewing, 
knitting, etc., which form a large part of woman's occupation. 
Piano playing also is probably more frequent 
among women than among men. 
The result of differences in use is especially well illustrated 
in a brief consideration of dorsal flexion. Children 
between the ages of five and sixteen years show 3.20 
per cent., women 3.07 per cent. and men 2.85 per cent. of 
their total strength. Strapping the foot to the stiff unyielding 
sole of modern shoes might account for the fall-. 
ing off in power of these muscles in the adult. That 
woman has considerably more power than mail may be 
due to the fact that she is more commonly trained in 
dancing, as was the case in this series of college women 
as compared with the college men. 

15 


Inversion shows little difference between men and women, 
the percentage being o.os greater for the men than 
for the women. Eversion makes 0.135 per cent more of 
the total strength of the woman than of the man. Again, 
the fact that a large number of these women had some 
training in aesthetic dancing may be a factor in the 
difference. 

Adduction is responsible for o.o8 more of the woman's 
total strength than of the man's. This may possibly be 
influenced oy the conventional requirement of lady-like 
behavior, which demands that a woman's knees be kept 
together. 

Abduction causes little difference, being 1.50 per cent. 
of the man's total strength and 1.475 per cent. of the 
woman's. Thus we were able to come to the following 
tentative conclusions: 

There is no difference in the muscular strength of 
women and men which is due to sex as such. Such differences 
as are frequently found are due to differences 
in the use of the muscles, brought about by the conventional 
limitations of activity or by dress. Marked overweight 
or marked underweight tends to lower the strength 
factor, as does also lack of coordination, which is too 
frequently found in women and exaggerated by their 
scant, physical activity in childhood. The effects of muscular 
training apparently persist long after the particular 
exercise has ceased. A high degree of muscular power 
in a woman in no way lessens her racial efficiency. Lack 
of muscular power, as in the pectoral muscles, may be a 
distinct racial disability. Since we know that periodic 
disability in a woman when no organic disease exists is 
readily eliminated/3 we may, therefore, conclude that sex 
is not necessarily a disability and that if son;te method be 
found of adjusting work to the individual strength under 
proper, hygienic conditions, without reference to sex, there 
is no teasoJ;I why the potential power of woman may not 
be used without danger of lessening her racial efficiency. 

13 Mosher, C. D.: "A Physiologic Treatment of Congestive Dysmenorrhoea 
and Kindred Disorders Associated with Menstrual Function," The Journal 

A.M. A., April 25, 1914, pp. 1297-1301; Health and the Woman Movement, 2d 
Edition, The \Vomans Press, 600 Lexington Ave., N. Y. City, 1918. 
16 


Feminine handicaps would seem to be reduced to the 
loss of time necessary for the bearing of children. Certainly, 
at the present time the highly differentiated modern 
woman can hardly hope universally to reduce this 
necessary loss of time to the minimum attained by the 
janitress of a school in one of our eastern cities. She was 
the mother of a baker's dozen of healthy children. She 
lost not a day's work from year's end to year's end, and 
at the birth of a child would, when the time came, go 
home, leaving her mop in the pail and, having been delivered, 
return in a couple of hours and finish her mopping. 
So the problem would seem to be not to minimize 
feminine handicaps, but to dispose of them altogether. 
We cannot hope to reach the highest places in 
our fields of endeavor while so much time, thought, energy 
and money are spent on clothes and fashion. No one 
can hope to attain preeminence in her own field of work 
and be her own tailor, dressmaker, milliner and laun


'dress. 

' Since it is use and not sex which determines the 

strength of muscles, the physical inequality of men and 

women will last just as long as the girl occupies her lei


sure time making tatting to decorate her clothes while 

her brother spends· his leisure playing ball. 

We must go back to the old Greek idea of physical 
perfection for both men and women. With the present 
generation of women we may have to compromise, because 
with them the idea of incapacity is firmly fL~ed in 
traditional thinking, and it is neither easy to acquire the 
habit of exercise in adult life nor can we fully make up 
for the lack of physical freedom in childhood; still, much 
can be done. 

If we can put aside the old idea that being· a woman • 
is a handicap and bring up the girl children of to-day, 
mentally and physically free, clothe them so that they 
may not be hampered in time or work, there is no limitation 
on what we may expect from the coming generation. 
Let us make use of anything that the man has 
found useful, if it is adapted to our purpose, but at the 
same time remember that because it is a man's is no reason 

17 


for so doing. Let us firmly keep in mind that we are 
not to imitate servilely the man, but make, ourselves 
more perfect women, fulfilling our own great place in 
the world. In the much needed work of freeing women 
from the traditional handicaps, a work which all thinking 
people must recognize, let us not make the mistake 
of losing sight of woman's primal function-motherhood. 
Because of our necessary concentration on the training of 
women for her economic place in the world, we must not 
divert the girl's attention too much from her racial obligations, 
since she in consequence may recognize too late 
the fact that no woman reaches her fullest development 
who is not a wife and mother. 

DISCUSSION 

DR. STANG: I fully agree with what has been said 
by Dr Masher-only I want to add a few words on 
the use of the brassiere. I do not feel that this is the 
cause of the pendent breast. I know girls who never 
\vear a brassiere, but have mammae pendentes, which 
probably represent a special hereditary type. 

DR. THUILLIER-LANDRY (translated from French): In 
regard to the endurance of women, in France it has been 
noticed that in the beginning women are able to work as 
hard as men, but little by little they become exhausted. 

DR. GIBOULOT (translated from French) : There is a 
difference between the two sexes, due to the lack of training. 
That is true. But there is a deeper difference between 
the two sexes due to an internal secretion. This is 
demonstrated by the changes that take place in women 
when the ovaries are removed by operation. The women 
in the factories during the war who worked long 
hours are now exhausted. Many could not stand the 
work; they became tuberculous. So there is a difference 
between a man who is not trained and a woman who is 
not trained-there is a deep difference which makes the 
struggle of life more difficult. 

18 


, DR. MURRELL: I should like to suggest that the sex 
difference which has to be admitted, due to the internal 
secretion, is one dealing with the emotional and not with 
the intellectual nor necessarily with the muscular condition 
of the woman. (Applause). 

A DELEGATE: I want to disagree with Dr. Mosher 
about the brassiere. There are certain kinds of brassieres 
which are suspended from the shoulders and are good 
for those women who have the pendent breast. 

DR. SUNDQUIST: The question about sex differences is 
a very difficult question. I think it is a question that cannot 
be solved in a discussion like this. I think, however, 
we all can agree upon the fact that for the present the 
young girls need much more physical training than 
they have and we can all agree upon the fact that the 
muscular condition of the present generation of young 
girls is not satisfactory. We need a better condition; we 
need more muscular training, whether there is an· inherent 
sexual difference or not. 

A DELEGATE: Dr. Mosher brought out the fact that 
girls should not be incapacitated at the menstrual time, 
and we will agree with her. What I want her to tell us 
is, in Leland Stanford is it their custom to excuse their 
students from the gymnasium floor for the first two days. 

DR MosHER: In regard to the brassiere, I af!l sorry 
I gave the· impression I did not think a brassiere properly 
worn might not be necessary sometimes. I was simply 
speaking of the normal breast and the way the average 
;rirl wears her brassiere. She puts it on in such a manner 
that she drags the breast down each time in her effort to 
conceal it, and I called attention to the fact that the normal 
breast in a .normal position is inconspicuous. . 

As to Dr. Stang's remark, another. factor in the pendulous 
breast is the change in weight. If you have a 
breast which is reduced in the amount of its fatty tissue, 
you are going to have a tendency towards flabbi_nes.s, just 
as you will have a tendency towards enteroptosis, If you 
have a change in the abdominal fatty tissue. You may 
have to support the organs to prevent a pathological condition 
developing. 

19 


In reference to the question of fatigue in the women 
workers, as compared to the men, I was working, "of 
course with college girls. The question of fatigue is not a 
question of sex. A man from the earliest time has a 
degree of physical activity that the average woman never 
has because of the conventional limitations of activities 
and because of her clothes. It is no wonder that when 
the woman, who has had no physical training and no activity 
and who is improperly clothed, so far as physical 
freedom is concerned, takes up this work, this heavy work, 
without any preparation, she is fatigued. A man in the 
same physical condition would experience the same result. 

With regard to the changes in a woman who has had 
ovariotomy, it seems to me I have heard of changes in the 
male after castration. I have records of a large number 
of women who have distinguished themselves during the 
menopause and afterwards and the overies are not active 
after the menopause. 

Reprinted from the Proceedings of the 
International Conference of Women Physicians 


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