🚀 go-pugleaf

baez@ucrmath.ucr.edu (john baez) writes:

>For some basic information on this subject, try "Sex Differences in the
>Brain" by Doreen Kimura in the Sept. 1992 Scientific American.  Let me just quote
>the last paragraph:

>The finding of consistent and, in some cases, quite substantial sex differences
>suggests that men and women may have different occupational interests and
>capabilities, independent of societal influences.  I would not expect,
>for example, the men and women would necessarily be equally represented in 
>activities that emphasize spatial or math skills, such as engineering or
>physics.  But I might expect more womone in medical diagnostic fields where perceptual
>skill are important.  So that even though any one individual might have
>the capacity to be in a "nontypical" field, the sex proportions as a whole
>may vary.

>I am not an expert in this subject so please don't flame me (but
>feel free to dispute Kimura's methodology!).  I will only note that she
>considers physiological evidence as well as "test scores".

On the ABC's (Australia) _Science_Show_ recently, a very interesting point has
been raised several times.  Basically it is this -
	Science/engineering/etc have traditionally been dominated by the
	"male"/"analytical" approach, whereas woman have a "perceptual"
	approach,	BUT SO WHAT,	this very difference means that
	they are able to approach/contribute to/and _solve_ problems from
	a new perspective; which is potentially valuable.

Adrian