Thursday, September 09, 2004

Men Are From Earth, and So Are Women

Bad studies and bad interpretation of statistics has greatly exaggerated the perceived behavioral differences in the genders. In fact, the degree of overlap between them makes the differences in the mean values basically insignificant.
"Obviously the difference rhetoric can create harm for both men and women. Men are taught to believe that they are deficient in caring and empathy, while women are led to believe that they are inherently unsuited for competition, leadership, and technological professions. Given how little empirical support exists for essentialist ideas, it's crucial that professors broaden the dialogue, challenging the conventional wisdom and encouraging their students to do so as well."

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