the publication of ellis's "man and women" led to an intellectual dispute about the variability hypothesis between ellis and the renowned statistician karl pearson, whose critique of ellis's work was both theoretical and methodological. after pearson dismissed ellis's conclusions, he then "presented his own data to show that it was the female who was more variable than the male" ellis wrote a letter to pearson thanking him for the criticisms which would allow him to present his arguments "more clearly & precisely than before", but did not yield his position regarding greater male variability (ibid pp. 777 - 778).