"I suspect that the distinction between a maternal and a paternal instinct is hardly worth making; the parental instinct, the wish to protect, to further, is not a sex-linked characteristic."
Feels like a brave statement to me from when this was published. Especially in the UK anyway, parental roles were considered gendered until the late 1980s; Although maybe as a dad I’m reading more into it than there is.
[EDIT: 2024-03-28] Came back to add a comment after the initial lazy/quick post.