From Eve to Evolution

Kimberly Hamlin's "From Eve to Evolution" provides the first full-length study of American women's responses to evolutionary theory, and in doing so expands our understanding of the reception of Charles Darwin in the United States. Hamlin argues that, rather than being the passive victims of scientific studies of female inferiority, women welcomed the entrance of evolutionary science into discussions of sex differences and, in many cases, used science as a feminist tool. Indeed, she reveals that many feminists, socialists, and sex reformers found support and inspiration for their beliefs in Darwin's work, particularly "The Descent of Man." Raised on the idea that Eve's sin forever fixed women's subordinate status, many nineteenth-century women embraced Darwinian evolution, especially sexual selection theory, as an alternative to the Genesis creation story. Darwin also introduced readers to the concept of human-animal kinship, allowing feminist reformers to look to animals for examples of non-patriarchal gender roles, domestic arrangements, and sexual power systems. This book chronicles the lives and writings of the women who combined their enthusiasm for evolutionary science with their commitment to women's rights, including Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Helen Hamilton Gardener, Eliza Burt Gamble, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Margaret Sanger.