Naiset eivät pärjää matemaattis-luonnontieteellisillä aloilla

The Guardian:

The president of Harvard University has provoked a furore by arguing that men outperform women in maths and sciences because of biological difference, and discrimination is no longer a career barrier for female academics.

Marie-Noelle Barton, the director of Women Into Science and Engineering in the UK: "I don't know where he's getting his research from. He's right that there are biological differences between men and women, obviously. Women can have babies and men can't. But to say that women can't do certain types of jobs is very sad and worrying. Eighteen per cent of engineers in this country are women. Is he saying that they are freaks?"

The Guardian:

"Research in behavioural genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialisation weren't due to socialisation after all"

At least half of his audience comprised women, several said they found the remarks offensive and one walked out.

Lucy Mangan:

Then again, it's unclear whether Lawrence Summers' remarks need rebutting at all. He cited several possible explanations as to why there are so few women in maths and engineering faculties at top universities. These included the suggestion that the reason male high-school students tend to get very high and very low scores on standardised maths tests, while female students tend to occupy more of the middle ground, may relate to a biological difference between the sexes.

It was at this point that the outrage apparently became too much for Nancy Hopkins, professor of biology at MIT, and she walked out. "When he started talking about innate differences in aptitude between men and women," she said later, "I just couldn't breathe because this kind of bias makes me physically ill."

I have an innate aptitude for finding such extreme bodily reactions to somebody's speech highly suspicious.

Naiset todistavat vastauksillaan Harvardin presidentille, että heidän päättelytaitonsa ei todellakaan ole heidän vahvin avunsa. Kun Harvardin presidentti sanoo, että miesten ja naisten väliset erot johtuvat pikemminkin biologiasta kuin sosialisaatiosta, naisprofessorit tulkitsevat sen naisen logiikalla: "On törkeää väittää, että naiset eivät voi tehdä tietyn tyyppisiä töitä."

Naiset ovat siis hyvin suuttuneita, koska he eivät voi ideologisista syistä johtuen uskoa, että biologia voi todellakin tehdä tuollaisen eron miesten ja naisten välille. Ja ilmeisestikin heille on myöskin mahdotonta käsittää, että tosiasiaväitteen esittäminen ei suinkaan tarkoita, että tietyillä aloilla työskenteleminen olisi mahdotonta kaikille naisille.

Toivottavasti kukaan paljasta, että biologisista syistä johtuen naiset eivät pärjää miehille oikeastaan missään - siitä se vasta suuttumus nousisi. Nyrkkeily, painonosto ja varsinkin älypelit, kuten shakki ovat naisille lähes mahdottomia haasteita. Voin jo mielessäni kuvitella naisprofessoreiden vastineen minulle: "Törkeitä väitteitä! Naiset ovat voittaneet naisten sarjoissa monia maailmanmestaruuksiakin! Mitäs siihen sanot?"