"You may try, but you can never imagine what it is to have a man's force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl."
These words uttered by Princess Halm-Eberstein to Daniel in George Eliot's novel Daniel Deronda may well have reflected the author's own feelings on the subject. George Eliot was the pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans, the brilliant English novelist of the nineteenth century who had to assume a man's name in order to be published and have her work treated with respect.
In Genesis we read, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."Gen. 1:27; Mrs. Eddy explains the Genesis passage in this way: "To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated that God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are human concepts. . . . The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity."Science and Health, pp. 516-517;
