Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site kontron.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!ihnp4!pesnta!pertec!kontron!cramer From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics Subject: Income Disparities Based On Sex Message-ID: <327@kontron.UUCP> Date: Wed, 3-Jul-85 23:40:11 EDT Article-I.D.: kontron.327 Posted: Wed Jul 3 23:40:11 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 07:31:42 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA Lines: 76 Xref: watmath net.women:6261 net.politics:9773 I haven't been accused of sexism yet (just racism), so I figure it's time to give some of reason to hate me even more. There has been a lot of discussion of disparities in income between men and women lately; there has been quite a bit of discussion in net.women of why there are so few women in engineering, with the clear presumption that this must be because of societal pressures to keep women away from "man's work". I was reading an article in the paper today which, while hardly conclusive, might want to give all of us some reason to wonder if this presumption is correct. The article was one of those rather chatty newspaper articles under the category "Science", where science has been simplified (and perhaps bastardized) in the pursuit of a wide audience. Let me therefore state that it is possible the newspaper reporter got something garbled --- then again, maybe this is an accurate statement of fact. The article is titled "What Einstein's brain teaches us", and along with an interesting description of recent research into brain function, the article says that Professor Marian Diamond and her husband, UCLA psychiatrist Arnold Scheibel, while teaching a course at UC Irvine Extension, indicated that "studies of brain tissue continue to bear out the notion that men and women do think fundamentally differently". In more detail, "Male and female minds really are different. Men typically have more highly developed cells in the right half of the brain controlling visual and spatial function, while such dominance isn't marked in women. 'This isn't to say that either is better,' Diamond says. 'By studying the brain, I've been able to understand men better.'" [end of quotations, opinion on] ******************************************************************* Unfortunately, the article doesn't say if this difference is acquired, or in-born, or if that subject has been studied. (What do you expect, it's a *feature* article.) Still, before we get too carried away assuming that engineering's shortage of women is the result of discrimination, let's consider the possibility that there might, in fact, be a difference in brain characteristics. After all, it is traditionally believed that ability with spatial relationships are related to engineering and "hard" sciences abilities. Note that I am *not* saying that all women are lacking this ability, and all men have more of this ability. Nonetheless, if there was a *on average* difference in built-in capabilities here, it might explain the disproportionate maleness of engineering and "hard" sciences. While everyone is busy looking for charcoal (for flaming), let me play amateur anthropologist and suggest a possible cause of the *possible* difference. For a long time, or at least for a few million years, it appears that hunting and war has been a primarily male function, and food gathering/preparation/child-rearing have been primarily female functions. The biological advantages of spatial ability for hunting are obvious, since you miss where your spear or rock goes, and you either go hungry, or get gored by a boar. It is not implausible to me that over a few thousands generations, the requirements of hunting might have selected disproportionately towards males with higher spatial reasoning, over females with higher spatial reasoning. ****FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T READ CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU LIGHT THE CHARCOAL, LET ME SAY IT AGAIN: THIS DOES ****NOT***** MEAN THAT NO WOMAN HAS THESE ABILITIES, OR THAT ALL MEN ARE SUPERIOR IN THIS AREA. WE ARE DISCUSSING AVERAGES --- JUST LIKE EVERYONE DISCUSSES AVERAGES WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT DIFFERENCES IN INCOME, AND THE SMALL NUMBER OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING. READ BEFORE YOU FLAME! **** I'm not going to claim that the remarks of Professor Diamond are absolute truth, or that my suppositions are necessarily correct --- but think about it before assuming bias, unfairness, and societal pressure, or at least consider that there may be a intrinsic biological difference causing *part* of the disparities. You can't flame me worse than I've already been --- any more heat, and all my 5.56mm will go off.