Edgar Berman Quotes
I would cite your little screed (which I am sure you are now sorry for) as a typical example of an ordinarily controlled woman under the raging hormonal imbalance of the periodic lunar cycle – thus proving the point against which you rail.
Berman was referring to a letter Mink had written to Hubert Humphrey asking him to have Berman removed from the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection of the Democratic Party. That letter stemmed from an incident that occurred at a Committee on National Priorities of the Democratic Policy Council meeting in April, 1970, in which Berman and Mink had gotten into a spat over the role of women. Berman had insulted Mink by claiming that women should not hold presidential and decision-making positions because of “hormonal influences.”
Edgar Berman, *-1987, Physician and Surgeon, Letter to Patsy Mink, July 14, 1970
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This directive was a very enlightened improvement over the then exiting customs regarding menstruating women. The existing Jewish tradition, also observed by many others, was for men to shun a menstruating woman and banish her to a ritual bathhouse. While menstruating, a woman was not to touch anyone and could not even prepare food as she was regarded as “unclean”. While not a completely modern pronouncement—intercourse was still banned—it was a great reform where Islam led the world. It is hard for many in modern times to consider Islam as a modernizing force for reform given the archaic view of most things, but in its beginning, Islam was a great force of reform and progress. Later the religion went through a consolidation and intellectual closing and allowed no further reform. Indeed, it made reform a crime often punishable by death.
Edgar F. Berman was an American surgeon and author. He is most remembered for his 1970 assertion that women were unable to hold leadership positions due to their "raging hormonal imbalances". He also implanted a plastic esophagus into a person and performed a heart transplant for a dog.
