In the “duh” category, researchers have determined that when given equal opportunities, women often make different choices than men do:
Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling conclusion: An important part of the explanation for the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences of women themselves. When it comes to certain math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers of women – highly qualified for the work – stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else.”
Reading this article from The Boston Globe was unintentionally funny. The feminists stumble over each other trying to tell us why these research results do not imply innate differences between the sexes or why it doesn’t matter if there are differences. They say things like:
“. . . boys and girls are not, at root, different enough for such clear sorting to be seen as a matter of ‘choice.'” So some one bribed these women and men to give differing answers to clear questions of preference in this study? Or maybe they were brainwashed, and the women don’t realize that they really, really do prefer careers in the hard sciences and in computers.
“It may seem like a cliche – or rank sexism – to say women like to work with people, and men prefer to work with things. Rosenbloom acknowledges that, but says that whether due to socialization or ‘more basic differences,’ the genders on average demonstrate different vocational interests.” Why, oh why, is it sexist or discriminatory to say that men and women are different and tend to have different preferences within a wide range of choices?
This is fascinating, Sherry. Thanks for linking to it. I agree that some of it is unintentionally funny, but as a woman who has a Ph.D. in engineering, but prefers to review children’s books, I found it fascinating. I especially enjoyed this part:
“Benbow and Lubinski also found something else intriguing: Women who are mathematically gifted are more likely than men to have strong verbal abilities as well; men who excel in math, by contrast, don’t do nearly as well in verbal skills. As a result, the career choices for math-precocious women are wider than for their male counterparts. They can become scientists, but can succeed just as well as lawyers or teachers. With this range of choice, their data show, highly qualified women may opt out of certain technical or scientific jobs simply because they can.”