Quote of the Day: On Blogging, Digit Ratio and Gender Equality

[matgb]

In a discussion about the interesting Beeb article on gender differences andrewducker says:

You know, the quality of comments like this, and the breadth of knowledge available on my friends list is one of the reasons I love livejournal.

I'd amend it slightly to say blogging generally, but LJ, with the built in friends list aggregator, does make it very easy to keep in touch with a huge chunk of people with knowledge in specific areas way beyond my own.

Not sure on the research as presented, she's definitely got a point, but as always generalisations can be beaten by specifics--my index and ring finger are roughly the same length, and I definitely show both "male" and "female" traits depending on context, and I know a fair number of women that are a lot more "male" than me in most respects. But on the other hand, I definitely agree that a good mix of talents and a good gender ratio make for a much more succesful office/business in general situations, and I'm always slightly wary when a profession, office or place of work is too skewed one way or the other.

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Stop blogging, woman, and get in the kitchen and make my drink! You're not going to get away with this when you're my wife, you know...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I'm full of testosterone, my ring finger is almost a centimetre longer than my index finger...
On the other hand, I have pathetic facial hair and almost no body hair so there wasn't much left it seems. ;oP

[innerbrat]

And I still get angry when Isee intelligent women talking about gender differences in positive constructive ways, and claim they're not feminists.

[thapunkprincess.livejournal.com]

That BBC article is just rubbish. I'm deeply suspicious of any of this 'evolutionary psychology' stuff that attempts to 'prove' gendered differences in thought processes (and I wonder what she has to has to say about racial differences in thought processes, hmmm).

It's a chicken-and-egg question. If MRI scans show womens' brains operating differently to men, is that because they've already been socialised in such a manner as to cause the differences, or do the differences cause the socialisation? If the former, then it doesn't prove much at all, and the latter just shows a determinism that is sexist in its political implications (and no doubt why when this woman speaks it upsets 'politically correct' people!).

What a crock of shit, in other words.

[misscoollinda.livejournal.com]

There's a woman that I work with here that hates female bosses. Our office manager, a woman, doesn't put up with this co-worker's whiny bullshit - hence her general poor opinion of ALL female management. The previous male manager listened to her whine and cry and usually gave in. She can't separate gender from management style.
As for being "feminist", it has taken on a negative connotation. I was telling someone that I thought men and women should be paid the same for doing the same work. He said "oh, you're one of those 'women's libbers ' ". He meant it as an insult.