"The Female of the Species" poem by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

 originally published in 1911. The title and refrain has been used as a title for at least three other works (see The Female of the Species (disambiguation).

Analysis

It begins with illustrations of the (alleged) greater deadliness of the females of different species, the Himalayan bear, the cobra and the native American, who frightened the Jesuits more than the men. It continues with the general thought that women, "must be deadlier than the male", as she is formed for the one purpose - motherhood. (It should be remembered that Kipling wrote before feminist views were widely held, and he may be thought of as not atypical of the men of his age, country, race and class.) Woman, says Kipling, has the greater determination - the greater courage and single-mindedness in the pursuit of the important in life.

She who faces death by torture for each life beneath her breast May not deal in doubt or pity - must not swerve for fact or jest. These be purely male diversionsWoman, he says, will fight like the bear and the cobra, and be as cruel as the squaw, in defence of her children. So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer With his fellow braves in council, dare not leave a place for herAn interesting insight into Kipling's ability to understand one of the complaint of the suffragette Suffragette "Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union... s, though he probably did not share it Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands To some God of Abstract Justice - which no woman understands.And here he shows that he judges female intelligence different from male - in some contrast to his understanding of the demands for suffrage. The poem's final stanza contains further ambivalences, and may serve to demonstrate that Kipling's attitudes are never simple And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him Must command but may not govern - shall enthral but not enslave him. And She knows, because she warns him, and her Instincts never fail;, That the Female of the Species is more deadly than the Male.It may be of interest to students of history that Kipling reports a common belief: that women are more instinctive (and less rational) than men; and that they may 'command' (tell men what to do) but may not govern (take public office, and rule en masse). It is unlikely, perhaps, to appeal to modern feminists.

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