Woman's instinct is often truer than man's reasoning.

Understand the thought

Meaning in plain English

The saying praises women’s instinct by contrasting it with men’s reasoning. Even this favourable comparison relies on a gender stereotype, rather than evaluating a particular intuition or argument on its merits.

What the words are saying

The line presents instinct and reasoning as competing ways of reaching a conclusion, then assigns each to a gender and favours the first. It may challenge an assumption that formal reasoning must always be superior, but it does so by making another broad assumption about women and men. The interpretation should distinguish questioning a weak argument from crediting every intuition attached to a woman. A feeling can suggest something worth investigating, and an explanation can still contain mistakes. Examine the actual grounds, observations and conclusion without making the speaker’s gender decide which way of thinking deserves to be trusted.

Everyday example

A committee checks the observation behind one member’s hunch and the assumptions behind another’s argument instead of choosing between them by gender.

When to use it

Use it to discuss the contrast between intuition and explicit reasoning while recognising the stereotype in the wording.

Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.