You blog like a girl

"The guy scientists think nothing of mocking each other by saying 'You research like a girl' or 'Careful with that mass spectrometer, you might break a fingernail,'" said an unnamed NOW source, reports ScrappleFace. "The laboratory is like a football locker room at most Ivy League schools." The occasion was Harvard President Lawrence Summers' politically incorrect remarks last week about potential biological differences between the sexes which might explain why fewer women succeed in science and math careers:

[MIT biology professor Nancy] Hopkins told The New York Times, "When he started talking about innate differences in aptitude between men and women, I just couldn't breathe."

If she hadn't walked out of the conference, she said she "would have either blacked out or thrown up."

Yah, yah, yah.  All well and good to make fun of us girls in the name of political incorrectness, BUT. While we agree there are innate differences, there's something that doesn't like a wall. For every innate difference, there are dozens of exceptions. We had to face that kind of thing in our day, way before the marxists, structuralists, post-structuralists and whatever politically correct intellectual jihadists of the day infiltrated the feminist movement. We were once horrified to hear from a well-meaning member of the unfair sex that "you think like a man."  Not. We think like ourselves. We happen to be a woman.

Like wolves, insecure misogynists [thanks to commenter Big Dirigible for pointing out our "mysspelling"] with no discernible aptitudes -- scientific or otherwise -- are always waiting just beyond the campfire to rush in when the flames ebb. SEE! they'll say.  Women are cute but dumb and men are smart.  The President of Harvard says so. They may be over-reacting -- or maybe not -- but our sympathies lie with the scientifically and mathematically accomplished women who are asked to listen to this kind of talk. The woman made me do it, Lord. From what we've read, it wasn't what Lawrence Summers said per se so much as his tone when he said it.  We weren't there, but our antennae are bristling. It's universal for men to trash women in order to build themselves up.  We're sure President Summers had no such thing in mind, but it's a touchy subject, how biological differences might produce statistical differences in intellectual abilities between the sexes. Do you think we blog like a girl?

Comments

[Donna]

Against my better judgment, I'm giving you the answer that popped into my head first: Of course you blog like a girl - intelligently, with depth of thought, reasonably, with well-founded logical arguments, and with an artful style.

Life would be so dull if men and women were the same, but difference does not mean inequality. It's interesting that the poll at the 'local6' link above is split almost evenly on whether Summers' remarks were offensive, or not.

[Sissy Willis]

You're so right, Donna. I enjoy blogging like a girl! :)

[colin]

An acquaintance of mine who teaches Psych at a prominent university told me thathe treats all questions about innate differences like a Silent But Deadly Fart by the university president;i.e. "Ignore it and hold your breath and maybe it will go away".The only work I know in this area is by Benbow and Stanley-a couple of psychologists who were at Hopkins.They found about 90% of 12 year olds with "innate very superior"math skills were male.The study relied on finding kids who scored 700 or more on the SAT math section who obviously hadn't had classwork in the area.I think it was in Science and it is 20 or so years old.It's a touchy subject.

[big dirigible]

This is weird. ScrappleFace is a joke site. It "reports" nothing. Are you taking anything from there as a news report?

The quote from the MIT biology professor is real (ie, reported someplace other than ScrappleFace). Be aware, however, that at MIT the biology department is only tenuously associated with the sciences. It's also the only department at MIT with statistically significant numbers of female students. Or it was when I was there, which was a while back.

I've been in science and engineering for nearly thirty years and have yet to hear any references to fingernails, or anything remotely like "you research like a girl" [there's that ScrappleFace again - it only appears in ScrappleFace if it's too ridiculous to be true]. "Insecure misogynists" (watch that spelling!) just doesn't come into it - that's a feminist fantasy, mere institutionalized misandry. "Smart" and "dumb" don't come into it, either. Women are simply not a factor in engineering, and only a minor one in science. This is a disappointment to me personally. I funded a series of awards to encourage talented students, including women - as I made very clear to the departmental awards committee when I started it - to pursue engineering professionally, but many years later I'm not at all sure that I did any of them any favors.

[Ben Martin]

As per the last comment:

See this, for example, for nearly up to date numbers (2001): http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf04311/start.htm , where you can see that in 2001 women had this percentage of Ph.D.s in the following areas:

Engineering - 16.9%
Physical sciences - 24.6%
Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences - 31.6%
Mathhematics and computer science - 23.5% (and most of that hit is from CS not math, I am fairly certain)
Biological/agricultural sciences - 43.5% (at the bachelor's level, women outnumber men in this area)
Pscyhology - 67.1%

[bs]

it isnt relevant but this one comes from india.yes you blog like a girl, very elegantly and wholeheartedly, with all of yourself and with amazing grace.
for those who say gender challenged-ness is a figment of leftist feminist barren imagination i say only this: get real dudes and dudesses.
and it thrives across classes borders and worlds first third fourth fifth. a long standing relationship with the biggest boldest tells me all i need to know about just what the average free and just and enlightened american man thinks of others of the human species.
thank the preznit for one can only respond with: bring 'em on...