W. I. Thomas
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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William Isaac Thomas (13 August 1863 – 5 December 1947) was an American sociologist. He is noted for his innovative work on the sociology of migration on which he co-operated with Florian Znaniecki, and for his formulation of what became known as the Thomas theorem, a fundamental principle of sociology: "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences".
Thomas' first major publication would be in 1907 with the book Sex and Society. Despite a biological bias that would nowadays be considered sexist by many (e.g. "Anthropologists…regard women as intermediate between the child and the man"), the book was progressive for its time. In Sex and Society, Thomas speculates that women's intellect might actually be superior to that of men's "due to their superior cunning" and "superior endurance."
