Rudolf Steiner on Gender

This is one of several posts which are based on my reading of The Philosophy of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner. For other posts, see below.

The following is strikingly contemporary. Please, remember that the book was published 1894. Rudolf Steiner writes:

It is impossible to understand a human being fully if one bases one’s judgment on a generic concept. We are most obstinate in judging according to type when it is a question of a person’s sex. … In practical life, this does less harm to men than it does to women. The social position of women is unworthy, for the most part, because it is at many points determined not, as it should be, by the individual characteristics of an individual woman… The activity of a man in life is determined by his individual capacities and inclinations; that of a woman is supposed to be determined exclusively by the fact that she is, precisely, a woman. …social conditions in which one half of humanity leads an existence unworthy of human beings are conditions that stand in great need of improvement.

—Rudolf Steiner, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: The Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 14. Individuality and Genus.

Rudolf Steiner added the following note to the 1918 edition:

As soon as this book appeared (1894), the objection was raised against these comments that, within what is appropriate to their sex, women can already live as individually as they like… I know that this objection will be raised today (1918) perhaps even more strongly then ever. Still, I must let these sentences stand, and hope that there are readers who understand how completely such an objection runs counter to the concept of freedom developed in this book…

—Rudolf Steiner, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: The Philosophy of Freedom, Chapter 14. Individuality and Genus, Note 1.

Although I don’t always share Rudolf Steiner’s thinking, I wholeheartedly agree with Steiner’s concept of freedom. Steiner has got the hierarchy of value right (as defined by Robert S. Hartman).

Update 2024-11-04:
Related posts updated.

Related posts:
Rudolf Steiner on Consciousness
Rudof Steiner on Freedom
Rudolf Steiner on Natural Objects
Rudolf Steiner on Thinking, Feeling, and Willing