"What about the sexes? An old proverb tells us: long hair, short brain."

Thus begins Paul Julius Moebius – assistant in the neurology section of Leipzig – in the small compendium “The Mental Inferiority of Women” written in 1900, appropriately defined as an evergreen of reactionary thought .

Women with small skulls and insufficient brain weight... according to Moebius, women are endowed with a total lack of judgment. "Furthermore, after a few pregnancies, they decline and, as is very vulgarly said, become senile." Not only that, women who pretend to think are annoying, and "reflection only makes them worse."

These statements are echoed by the Italian doctor, anthropologist, jurist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso : women lie and often kill, as proverbs from all regions say.

Fortunately, the brains of healthy women weigh more than those of criminal women. And here's a quick overview of high-profile crimes, such as that committed by Agrippina , or by Leonarda Cianciulli , the soapmaker of Correggio.

“Women have only one enemy,” Moebius reiterates, “time, to which, however, after a few years of marriage they succumb, either becoming silly or drying up in the form of extravagant old maids.”

Moreover, where talent is found, the female psyche manifests an evident psychic hermaphroditism.

Sylvain Maréchal , writer, lawyer and self-styled revolutionary, with his “ Bill to prohibit women from reading ” argues that “learning to read is superfluous for women and harmful to their natural education”, on the other hand “reason dictates that women count the eggs in the yard and not the stars in the firmament”.