Stephen Hawking — "Women. They are a complete mystery."
Women. They are a complete mystery.
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More from Stephen Hawking
"There are no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope."
"We are all different, but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt and survive."
"The universe is a mystery, and I'm trying to solve it."
"The universe is a grand design, and we are but tiny parts of it."
"The universe is full of wonders, and we are lucky to be a part of it."
About Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
British theoretical physicist whose Hawking radiation work and A Brief History of Time (1988) brought black-hole physics to a mass audience while he lived with ALS for 55 years. Closely associated with Roger Penrose (his collaborator on singularity theorems) and Carl Sagan (fellow popularizer who wrote Brief History's foreword). For an intellectual contrast, see William Lane Craig, American philosopher of religion — Craig's Kalam cosmological argument depends on the Big Bang requiring a divine first cause; Hawking's no-boundary proposal was specifically designed to remove the moment that would require one — the cleanest cosmology-vs-natural-theology contrast in modern thought.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The quote uses dry wit to contrast mastery of cosmic complexity with bafflement at women. It suggests that even a mind that mapped black holes and theorized the universe's origins finds human relationships — specifically women — inscrutable. A self-deprecating admission that scientific brilliance doesn't translate to personal understanding, the two-sentence structure mirrors how Hawking wrote: blunt, spare, landing with unexpected humor.
Relevance to Stephen Hawking
Hawking was married twice — to Jane Wilde for 25 years, then to nurse Elaine Mason — both marriages ending in divorce amid reported tension. His personal life was complicated despite his cosmic genius. Famously witty in interviews, he deflected vulnerability with humor. The quote reflects a man whose intellect dominated theoretical physics yet found the emotional and social dimensions of intimate relationships genuinely, honestly beyond him.
The era
Hawking made this remark around 2012, as debates about women in STEM, workplace gender parity, and male scientists' tone-deaf comments about women were gaining sharp cultural momentum. Social media was amplifying every prominent man's misstep on gender. His framing — sincere bewilderment rather than condescension — largely immunized the comment from backlash, arriving just before the climate made such quips far more contested territory for public figures.
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