Girl Power!

StickerShock
Sun, 11 Mar 2007 08:08:16 +0000

Why should it be acceptable for females and males to achieve in separate categories?

Because women are free to choose whatever they want. They are heavily encouraged to pick science & engineering fields, even admitted to many programs with lower stats so as to bring in higher numbers. Yet except for biological sciences,I believe more men still lean that way.

As for Nobel prizes, men are more likely to be outliers on any IQ or scientific aptitude bell curve. Just as they are more heavily represented in the lowest range, they are found more often in the highest. Those high outliers are more likely to be Nobel candidates.

I don’t see any unfairness here. Every person, if viewed as an individual, should have choices and not be forced to conform to some utopian ideal of 50/50 reperesentation in all fields. If 90% of doctors were women and 90% of engineers were men, and 90% of firefighters were men and 90% of librarians were women, so what? Are these doctors and engineers and librarians and fire fighters in careers that suit them? That they are qualified for? Shouldn’t that be the goal – freedom to choose whatever field in which you have an aptitude & an interest?

I think a large part of boys’ disconnect with school achievement starts in the early elementary years. Here, the kid lit consists of “Wonderwoman and the Wimp” themed stories. Virtually every smart, brave & resourceful character is a girl, with a flawed little boy tagging along, learning important life lessons from her. No wonder boys tune out.