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

[andrewducker]

the latter just shows a determinism that is sexist in its political implications
Which doesn't, of course, have any bearing on whether or not it's true.

[thapunkprincess.livejournal.com]

It could well be true, and it could well be the case that these differences are hard-wired from birth with no socialisation involved. But we don't know this, and she doesn't know this. What we do know is that from the start she 'upsets politically correct people' and that she's 'not a feminist'.

So a political reading of what ostensibly appears to be a science report is the appropriate response, I feel.