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Posted on 02/25/2006 1:56:39 PM PST by Coleus
Baron-Cohen makes one point clear: You cannot deduce the psychological characteristics of any person by knowing their sex. Arguing from the scientific literature that men and women typically have different types of brains, he nevertheless points out that "some women have the male brain, and some men have the female brain." Stereotyping is unscientific — "individuals are just that: individuals." Yet Baron-Cohen presents evidence that males on average are biologically predisposed to systemize, to analyze, and to be more forgetful of others, while females on average are innately designed to empathize, to communicate, and to care for others.
Many facts argue that these differences have their roots in biology and genetics. For instance, newborn infants (less than 24 hours old) have been shown a real human face and a mobile of the same size and similar colour. On average, boys looked longer at the mobile and girls looked longer at the face. |
Autism spectrum conditions provide another example. People with these problems communicate poorly; they are unable to put themselves in another's place, and have difficulties with empathizing. They may treat others as objects. They often become obsessed and show repetitive behaviour. The less severely affected can become experts on recondite subjects, such as train timetables or ocean temperatures. Most relevant for our arguments is that autism spectrum conditions are largely sex-limited, being between four and nine times more frequent in males. From many studies, including psychology and neuroanatomy, Baron-Cohen argues convincingly that autism spectrum conditions are an extreme form of maleness.
It will not have escaped the notice of many scientists that some of their colleagues and maybe themselves have more than a hint of these "autistic" features. There is good evidence that this type of single-mindedness is particularly common in males. Indeed, we might acknowledge that a limited amount of autistic behaviour can be useful to researchers and to society. For example, a lifetime's academic concentration on a family of beetles with more than 100,000 species may seem weird, but we need several such people in the world for each family. And most of these specialists will be men.
It follows that if we search objectively for an obsessive knowledge, for a mastery of abstruse facts, or for mechanical understanding, we will select many more men than women. And if males on average are constitutionally better suited to be this kind of scientist, it seems silly to aim at strict gender parity. However, in professions that rely on an ability to put oneself in another's place, at which women on average are far superior, we should expect and want a majority of women. For example, among current student members of the British Psychological Society, there are 5,806 women to 945 men; and among graduate psychologists, 23,324 women to 8,592 men.
Many who have turned their attention to explaining the fall out of women from the hard sciences have ascribed the phenomenon to a mixture of discrimination and choice. Regarding overt discrimination, in a lifetime in science, I have seen only little, and it has been both for and against women. Surely, gender discrimination cannot explain more than a tiny part of this trend. But there is a different kind of discrimination that particularly damages creative pursuits such as science. There is good psychological evidence that aggression and lack of empathy are on average male characteristics, and we may agree with Baron-Cohen that for both sexes, "nastiness … gets you higher socially, and gets you more control or power." In this struggle, men climb higher because they are on average more ruthless, and many women, as well as a gentle minority of men, shy away from competing with them.
Yawn...
Too long and complicated to read.
Think I'll go read one of those magazines that the church doesn't want me to read, instead.
bye, have fun.
Here's come trivia, the Cambridge Professor of Developmental Psychopathology Simon Baron-Cohen is a cousin of Ali G aka Borat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen
All I know is that when my boys were quite young - and having not been subjected very little gender stereotyping - I still couldn't get them to even walk down the isle of girls' toys at Toys-R-Us.
I wonder if this guarantees that 2 young boys I know who live in my neighborhood will, one day, embody all the physical characteristics of either Arnold Schwarzenagger John Wayne or Harrison Ford.
ping
Women are smarter than men, I know this. My wife tells me everyday.........
"It follows that if we search objectively for an obsessive knowledge, for a mastery of abstruse facts, or for mechanical understanding, we will select many more men than women."
An obvious example of this are sports statistics.
How many female mechanics are there??????
This article mentions a fallout of women from the hard sciences...when my younger son graduated from college, he got his degree in Applied Physics Engineering...of all the students receiving their degrees, in this particular venue of study, among those receiving their bachelors degrees, there were no women, among those receiving their masters degrees, there were no women, and among those receiving their doctorates, there was only one woman...
Also, from all those graduating, almost all of the students, with the exception of my own son, one of his best friends, and the lady receiving the doctorate, the greatest percentage of all of the other graduates were Asians...
It really was a lopsided view of this particular branch of study...almost all male, and almost all Asians...
...autism spectrum conditions are an extreme form of maleness.
My son is very masculine, apparently.
Just think, someday a scientist may figure out men have an edge in warfare too.
"I still couldn't get them to even walk down the isle of girls' toys at Toys-R-Us."
LOL! You got real boys, no metro types.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Baron-Cohen argues convincingly that autism spectrum conditions are an extreme form of maleness.
I wonder if this guarantees that 2 young boys I know who live in my neighborhood will, one day, embody all the physical characteristics of either Arnold Schwarzenagger John Wayne or Harrison Ford.
>>
No. But it is no coincidence that the geek is a male stereotype.
ENTJ
Correct. Anybody who has observed kids in day-care and preschool for a long time will come to the conclusion that psychological gender differences are in the hardware.
Sexist! You must resign as President of Harvard University!
On the other hand, my youngest daughter's favorite aisle was the toy guns.
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