I do not believe that I am the right person to give this Galton Lecture. I am not in the least a dyed-in-the-wool woman academic. To be that one has to have been man-and-boy in the job. Most of my colleagues at Oxford and sister colleagues at Cambridge could have given the lecture much better. Having written this introductory sentence, it was borne in on me that there were two separate breeds (I am not quite sure whether in this scientific milieu I should say species or genera) of academic women. At Oxford and Cambridge, at Durham, and up to recently in London, there has been the phenomenon (I cannot, in fact, think of any other classificatory term, for obviously one cannot use either breed or species or genera in the generally accepted sense about a single-sex organization) of associations of undiluted women academics, associations to be diluted by about 1972. In other universities, the female of the species is absorbed in the whole. Again, having reached this stage in my meditations, my sense of inadequacy in my present situation is slightly mitigated by the fact that I have at least had some experience of a community in which sex-differentiation was nominally not observed. Between my period as an Oxford undergraduate and my past 7 years as Principal of an Oxford women's college, I had 27 years at the University of London, though I must admit it was at an eccentric and utterly atypical institution.

Patterns of divorce behaviour in England are not well documented. Apart from the limited data provided annually by the Registrar General, and secondary commentaries on these, our knowledge comes almost entirely from a single paper which is now becoming historically dated (Rowntree & Carrier, 1958). There has been no social survey of a specifically divorced population, and the paper referred to is the only example of analysis based on court records. The present paper derives from work currently in hand which is utilizing survey interviews, court records, autobiographical materials and other documentary sources, to obtain new kinds of information about divorce. More specifically, what follows is based in part on data from the Registrar General's annual reports and, in part, on a provisional analysis of the court records of 1000 undefended divorce suits occurring in a provincial city during the years 1966–68.

The relation between sex and crime is an important and significant one. Broadly speaking, recorded criminality varies notably according to sex, being at a much higher level among males than females. It is men who are largely responsible for the planning and execution of large-scale crimes such as robberies. Serious recidivism, which presents such a problem in terms of penal care and treatment, is almost exclusively a masculine phenomenon—in a recent survey of crime in the UK, the incidence of serious recidivism amongst women is not even calculated (McClintock & Avison, 1968). The study of sex differences in criminality should, then, illuminate our knowledge of crime and its aetiology; it should also tell us something about sex differences in society in general.

Sex differences in psychiatric illness in earlier adult life are discussed. A random sample of elderly respondents were seen in their homes in order to examine neurotic reactions in the aged.

The relationship between neurotic symptoms, physical health, social data and sex were ascertained for the population as a whole.

Normal and late onset neurosis sub-groups were compared with regard to selected medical, psychiatric and social variables considered to have a bearing on neurotic reaction in the elderly. The variables discriminating best between ‘neurosis’ and normality were abnormal personality traits, physical ill-health and being female.

In the absence of any marked physical disability, being female was among the highest discriminators between the normal and neurotic groups. In the physically ill group, neither sex was more significantly represented than the other. Social factors were examined to explain the continuing preponderance of females in the late-onset neurotic group, but it was felt that they did not fully explain the differences observed.

The male is the weaker sex in nearly all disease categories and age groups. Sexual differences in mortality rates sometimes pose some interesting biological problems and warrant the interest of those concerned with the health of society. Males are undoubtedly the weaker sex. In contemporary, developed countries most mortality is man-made, the male being particularly adept at killing himself. In addition, men, the weaker sex, appear to reap some sort of vengeance on women, as the attitudes of doctors—and these are predominantly male attitudes—do not always lead to the most rational care of women undergoing the uniquely female risk of reproduction.