Aristotle, who helped coined the term “everything happens for a reason”
Although he did not state the exact words, Greek Philosopher Aristotle developed the quote, “everything happens for a reason”, that is now widely used in society. In Book One of Aristotle’s Ethics, Aristotle states that “there’s purpose, meaning and growth to be gained from whatever tough times you face”. Although he believed in reason and purpose, Aristotle did not believe that women should receive the same rights as men. Importantly, Aristotle also argued that women were subjects of men and held a similar role in society role as slaves. He famously states “the slave is wholly lacking the deliberative element; the female has it, but it lacks authority; the child has it, but it is incomplete”. As summarized by Richard Mulgan, “Aristotle’s biological theories, including his theory of sexual reproduction in which the male sperm provides the rational principle for the embryo, reflect a deep hostility to women and an all pervading sense of male superiority. He sees the relationship between husband and wife as primarily one of ruler and ruled” (Muglan 180). But this happens to women for a reason, right? It is certainly not happening due to the physical law of nature.
Contrary to Aristotle’s view, however, according to the science of quantum physics, there is no reason behind every action. Discovered in the 1920s by a group of physicists including Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and others, the quantum mechanic randomness theory states that there is no factual evidence to prove that there is a reason behind everything. Originally used in order to replace probabilities, “quantum mechanics famously says that you can’t predict with certainty whether, say, a radioactive atom will decay within a specified time period, even given complete knowledge of the laws of physics as well as the atom’s initial conditions. The best you can do is to calculate a probability” (Aaronson). In order to prove this, Aaronson uses physicist John Bell’s theorem on quantum mechanics. Bell’s theory is explained by playing a game between two players, Alice and Bob, to calculate the “classical correlation” between the two. The two players are given an envelope with either a red or blue card and are forced to communicate which card they have by raising their fingers. One solution to the game is for the players to combine two electrons to spin left and right equally, which is an example of an entangled state: “a combined quantum state of several particles that can’t be factored into states of the individual particles” (Aaronson). Here, the particles represent the idea that randomness is unpredictable, as shown by physics. Physicists throughout history, such as Bell, find that there is scientifically no purpose behind every action and that everything does not happen for a reason. As Heisenberg stated with respect to his uncertainty principle, “Uncertainty is NOT I don’t know. It is I can’t know”.
The oppression between men and women dates back to 8,500 to 6,500 BCE with nomadic pastoral tribes. While men were given the role to breed animals, women were given a less significant role of gathering food. The inequality of roles in society continued when men were tasked with the job of hunting animals, while women were expected to look after the children and provide their milk. As German philosopher Karl Marx explains this power imbalance “It would seem that men did not become more rich and powerful because of their superior strength, but because they were not tied by the hour-to-hour work of providing for the fetus and young children, and were indeed supported by women. This freed them for other things”.
Judith from the Book of Judith, which was removed from the Hebrew Bible
These historical gender stereotypes were perpetuated even after religious scriptures were written. The Book of Judith, for example, recounts how a young woman asserts control over an armed dispute and seduces and decapitates a male leader. The Book of Judith was removed from the Hebrew Bible because according to some, “the powerful role allotted Judith and suggests that she was simply too feminist and independent to be accepted by the rabbis, who did not appreciate her subversion of patriarchal norms” (Gera 28). The decision to remove the Book of Judith from the Bible was an intentionally discriminatory action. Under the historic Aristotlian view, the historic subjugation of women would be viewed as fatalistic.
Another element of quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement, finds “that aspects of one particle of an entangled pair depend on aspects of the other particle, no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them”. One particle becomes harmonious with another particle. As stated by Xie Chen, “when particles are entangled, it’s as if they are born that way, like twins. Even though they might be separated right after birth, [they’ll] still look the same. And they grow up having a lot of personality traits that are similar to each other.”
In their book, “Meeting the Universe Half-Way: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning”, Dr. Karen Barad asserts that “Individuals do not preexist their interactions; rather, individuals emerge through and as a part of their entangled intra-relating” (Barad). One review of Barad’s book, entitled “Entangled Post Humanism” by Sherryl Vint, offers the following quote: “For Barad, then, the basic unit of reality on the level of empirically-verifiable properties of matter is the phenomenon, not the “thing,”… Instead of pre-existing the experiment or, more accurately, the measurement, “determinate entities emerge from their intra-action””.
Just as entangled particles resonate with one another, negative patterns regarding the treatment of women have replicated throughout the course of history and throughout the world. For centuries, for example, women were excluded from the medical field. Even obstetrics. Instead, they were relegated to midwife roles and were not even permitted to attend medical school. As stated by Polly F. Rodosh, “three years after the first midwifery school was opened, the first medical school began taking students. Since women were barred from medical schools and since it was claimed by the schools that only doctors could make childbirth safe, physicians gradually began to replace midwives” (Rodosh 130). In recent years, women have been excluded from leadership roles and marginalized in modern society:
The discrimination of women in the workplace is relevant throughout the world as female CEOs make up “4.8% of the world’s largest businesses on the Global 500” in 2022. Judith G. Oakley provides an explanation for the lack of female representation at the top management level. Oakley describes that “the barriers that prevent women from ascending to senior management positions in large corporations have often been described by the metaphor “the glass ceiling”, a transparent barrier which prevents women from moving up the ladder past a certain point” (Oakley 321). Oakley’s explanation coincides with the concept of quantum entanglement on a human level. Similar to the intra-active resonance of particles, quantum theory would conclude that patterns of gender discrimination have echoed throughout time.
Citations
Aaronson, Scott. “Quantum Randomness.” American Scientist, 11 Dec. 2017, www.americanscientist.org/article/quantum-randomness.
Andreas Muller Associate Professor of Physics. “What Is Quantum Entanglement? A Physicist Explains the Science of Einstein’s ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’.” The Conversation, 11 Oct. 2022, https://theconversation.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement-a-physicist-explains-the-science-of-einsteins-spooky-action-at-a-distance-191927.
“Aristotle’s Purpose of Life.” The Great Conversation, 30 June 2013, orwell1627.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/aristotles-purpose-of-life/.
Barad, Karen. “Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning by Karen Barad.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 20 June 2007, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/738083.Meeting_the_Universe_Halfway.
Cerullo, Megan. “Pandemic Spurs Decline in Women Hired into Leadership Roles, Undoing Years of Progress.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 31 Mar. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-pandemic-women-leadership-roles-reverse-progress/.
Collaborative, Women Business. “8.8% Fortune 500 CEOS Are Women – the Highest of All Indices – According to the Women CEOS in America Report 2022.” 8.8% Fortune 500 CEOs Are Women – the Highest of All Indices – According to the Women CEOs in America Report 2022, 22 Sept. 2022, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/8-8-fortune-500-ceos-are-women—the-highest-of-all-indices–according-to-the-women-ceos-in-america-report-2022–301630455.html.
Gera, Deborah Levine. “The Jewish Textual Traditions.” The Sword of Judith: Judith Studies Across the Disciplines, edited by Kevin R. Brine et al., 1st ed., Open Book Publishers, 2010, pp. 23–40. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vjt5x.4. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.
Hinchliffe, Emma. “Female CEOS Run Just 4.8% of the Fortune Global 500.” Fortune, Fortune, 3 Aug. 2022, fortune.com/2022/08/03/female-ceos-global-500-thyssenkrupp-martina-merz-cvs-karen-lynch/.
Marx, Karl. “Basis of Women’s Oppression.” Marxists, Oct. 1990, https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.hightide/basis.htm.
L., Darina. “Shocking Male vs Female CEO Statistics 2022.” Best Tech Jobs Near You, Leftronic, 23 Jan. 2022, leftronic.com/blog/ceo-statistics/.
Madgavkar, Anu, et al. “Covid-19 and Gender Equality: Countering the Regressive Effects.” McKinsey & Company, McKinsey & Company, 13 Apr. 2022, www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-the-regressive-effects.
Milenkovic, Milica. “The Leadership Gap: 20 Male vs. Female CEO Statistics (2022).” SmallBizGenius, Mar. 11AD, 2022, www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/male-vs-female-ceo-statistics/#gref.
Oakley, Judith G. “Gender-Based Barriers to Senior Management Positions: Understanding the Scarcity of Female CEOs.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 27, no. 4, 2000, pp. 321–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25074386. Accessed 8 Nov. 2022.
“Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG).” Quside, 17 Oct. 2022, quside.com/quantum-random-number-generators-why-how-where/.
Radosh, Polly F. “Midwives in the United States: Past and Present.” Population Research and Policy Review, vol. 5, no. 2, 1986, pp. 129–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40229820. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022.
Salmansohn, Karen. “Struggling to Believe Everything Happens for a Reason? .” NotSalmon, 16 Dec. 2021, www.notsalmon.com/2012/11/02/struggling-to-believe-everything-happens-for-a-reason-read-this-now/.
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The Atlantic, AtlanticMedia Company, 24 Mar. 2022, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/.
Smith, Hannah. “Sexism Started with Aristotle.” THE SKIER SCRIBBLER, 5 May 2021, skierscribbler.com/10299/opinion/sexism-started-with-aristotle/.
Strong Female Lead. “These Are the Reasons Why We (Still) Don’t Have Many Women CEOs.” Fast Company, 6 Sept. 2019.
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