ok, that's just bad reading

Anna Julia Cooper writes:

"'[W]hile we do not unfrequently see women who reason, we say, with the coolness and precision of a man, and men as considerate of helplessness as a woman, still there is a general consensus of mankind that the one trait is essentially masculine and the other is peculiarly feminine. That both are needed to be worked into the training of children, in order that our boys may supplement their virility by tenderness and sensibility, and our girls may round out their gentleness by strength and self-reliance' (60-61)'"

Houston Baker reads:

Cooper is so absorbed with this dual essentialist symmetry of masculine/feminine that she extends it to all walks of life. (33)

.... and I say, actually, that Cooper specifically implies this 'dual essentialist symmetry' is wrong--inaccurate--"we do not infrequently see women who reason... still there is a general consensus of mankind," so we may as well teach our children gender radicalism so that we can at least not lose out on human potential.