One of the reasons put forward for men's domination of both science and art is the spread of their IQ distribution: supposedly, there are more men than women at both extremes of the scales.
Novalis held the same point of view, but in reverse: "Doesn't it speak for the superiority of women that the extremes in their education are much more striking than in ours?" (II, 616). I cannot find an English translation of the fragment, but here is the relevant phrase in the original German, with discussion.
