Friday, July 18, 2008

Gender & Science, courtesy of Corrupt.org

I got this link from a Corrupt.org post and have formulated my own comments on the matter.

Here's the Corrupt link, and here is the NYTimes link.


The members of Congress and women’s groups who have pushed for science to be “Title Nined” say there is evidence that women face discrimination in certain sciences, but the quality of that evidence is disputed. Critics say there is far better research showing that on average, women’s interest in some fields isn’t the same as men’s.

Ms. Pinker, a clinical psychologist and columnist for The Globe and Mail in Canada (and sister of Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist), argues that the campaign for gender parity infantilizes women by assuming they don’t know what they want. She interviewed women who abandoned successful careers in science and engineering to work in fields like architecture, law and education — and not because they had faced discrimination in science.



Crowd: WE WANT GENDER EQUALITY IN SCIENCE!

Women in Science: But we do have equality in science...when we're present. Just so happens there aren't as many women in the field as men. What would you do - force more women to major in science & live a life they don't want to live, so that there's a 50/50 split in the field? That doesn't make much sense. Even forcing the issue a little doesn't make sense; the only people who should be doing scientific research are people who want to do the work. It would be a disaster if it were any other way.

[murmur from the crowd]

Crowd: EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE!

Women in Science: We do get paid equally...not as many of us reach the higher plateau of the field simply because there are fewer of us to choose from, and therefore fewer scientific genius women out there.

[puzzled look on faces of the crowd]

Crowd: EQUALITY FOR ALL! EQUALITY FOR ALL!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what happens when equality - with no real direction - is the big theme of the day/year/generation. Idiots decide what's right & best within fields they have absolutely no business interfering. When does this insanity stop?

No comments: