This statement always amazes me. I've always been able to read maps. So can my daughter. Isn't this just a male-biased myth?
Well, Mrs. Rodney King sure can't read them, and she is an lawyer from a top law school.
I have to wonder, that's for sure. It was part of my job in the Navy to be able to read maps. I worked with them all the time.
It may be a lack of interest in such things more than anything else. But, hey! I'm just a chick, so what do I know? LOL!
Same here, twigs. Love maps, always have even as a child, and am terrific at reading them. Methinks they paint with too broad a brush. My observation is that a lot of females are not too interested in maps, and are less likely to bother with something they don't care for. I loved them, I did bother with them, and I am living proof that this generalized assertion is pure hogwash.
Me, too.
I have a horrible sense of direction, and would not consider going out the front door without a map.
I have to stop and make a conscious effort to remember which way is north on our property -- and we've lived here 10 years.
Nope. Not a myth, but a statistic. You and your daughter are merely closer to the end of the bell curve.
My lovely wife who is much smarter than me (just ask her) was looking at an aerial photo of our place last night. It was oriented north on the page. "This is kind of backwards, isn't it?" she said. This is because she normally drives south to get here.
I thought the same thing.
I was the one with the perfect sense of direction in the family (believe me, hubby could get lost in the back yard) and was always the map-reader/navigators on trips.
I always thought it was the other way around. Like, the reason the Hebrews spent 40 years in the desert was because Moses refused to stop and ask for directions.
Well, it would certainly have to be, since it evidently points out that men and women aren't exactly alike.
And, as we all know, men love to shop for shoes and purses.
I've never had a problem reading maps. It seems strange to me that anyone COULDN'T read one.
A few years ago I drove a friend to Savannah for a funeral. Neither of us knew where to go once we got there. While at a rest stop I picked up flyers for a number of places in Savannah, all with maps in them. I used the maps in the flyers to find my way around and got us where we needed to go. She made fun of me and my maps the whole time (in fun of course), but we didn't get lost.
Janet Reno! Is that you?
It's just a trend female based on biological (socio-biological) studies and doesn't mean all female have disadvantages in certain abilities. Nothing less and nothing more.
No,
but congratulations.
My sister-in-law was at my house in Long Beach, California and wanted to go to Santa Anita Race track in Arcadia, but was not sure how to get there. I tried to show her on a map.
After some discussion and confusion on her part, she decided to drive home to her house (in Hollywood) and then go to the track because:
"It will easier that way. I know how to get to Santa Anita from my house."
If you look at a map of the LA basin, and locate these cities, you will see how ridiculous this was.
No like most things just look at the center Bell Curve for just about any activity. Some will be poor (left) some will be average (middle) some, like you will be good at a given task(right). The center line will vary on many tasks between the sexes and yes in some cases between races (oh no, here come the PC police).
Yes! it is. Myth! Myth! Myth!
I can read any maps and have always been able to this magnificient feat!
Furthermore, I have maps are all over my office here at home.
2 Christmas's ago, that's what I asked for, and my husband was up half the night getting them ready to be hung on my walls.
I have the world, then the states, then our state, then our county maps.
I have maps of everywhere we've visited. Just in case we want to go there again. My husband also loves maps. He drives 2500 to 3000 miles a week, for a living.
Also, I know too many men that can't read them for diddley!
Again Myth! Myth! Myth!
I can read maps just fine. I just have a problem figuring out which direction is north or south or east or west! LOL
My middle daughter is the best at math and worst at map-reading and spatial relationships and always gets lost. At sunset on a clear day she can't figure out which way is West. My youngest daughter is 2d best at math but never gets lost, always knows how to come and go from places she has never been before.
I'll bet that the average home-schooled boy has many the vocabulary of a girl of the same IQ from the public uneducation system. Let me pick the sample group and the test method and I'll produce any statistic that will get me funding to do more research.
It's bunk. I read maps just fine and ace my math classes. Isn't it males who won't ask for directions or look at a map when they are lost and prefer to go on instinct? My brother keeps the Thomas Guide in the trunk...a lot of good that does him when he's behind the wheel on the freeway:)
The difference is that:
* Women are not good at following directions.
* Men are not good at asking for directions.
It's why so many of us are lost.
No. The research doesn't mean that no woman can read maps, or that all men can. It just says that on average, men will be more likely to do so than women. In a given population, the number of women who can do so will be smaller than the number of men who can.