Monday, November 06, 2006

Women, science and the gender gap

More feminist pseudoscience at work

THE DEBATE over gender and science, which helped bring down Harvard President Lawrence Summers this year, has been revived by a new report from the National Academies, ``Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering." The report endorses the view that the predominance of men in scientific fields is due not to biological differences and personal priorities, as Summers suggested, but to gender bias and unconscious institutional sexism. But is this an effort to find out the truth, or to stamp out heresy?

The makeup of the panel that produced the report is revealing. Chaired by University of Miami President Donna E. Shalala, known for her commitment to feminist causes, the panel included a number of strong proponents of the belief that women in science are held back primarily by sexism and that aggressive remedies to these biases are needed. Noticeably absent were proponents of other viewpoints -- including such female scientists as Vanderbilt University psychologist Camilla Persson Benbow or Canadian neuroscientist Doreen Kimura, who argue that biological sex differences influence cognitive skills in some areas.

The report has been hailed as a decisive refutation of what panel member Ana Mari Cauce, executive vice provost of the University of Washington in Seattle, dismissed as ``myths" about women in science. A Reuters story stated, ``A committee of experts looked at all the possible excuses -- biological differences in ability, hormonal influences, childrearing demands, and even differences in ambition -- and found no good explanation for why women are being locked out."

But a look at the report, available online from the National Academies Press, shows a much more complex picture. For instance, the report points to the narrowing gap between boys' and girls' mathematics test scores as evidence that there are no innate differences to inhibit female success. But average test scores are not a good indicator of what it takes to be successful in the scientific field. As the report briefly acknowledges, male scores have far greater variability, with more boys clustered at the bottom, among children with severe learning disabilities, and at the top, among the highly gifted.

The report attempts to neutralize this fact by pointing to a study that found that many women and men in the science, engineering, and mathematics workforce have SAT math scores below the ``gifted" level. But there's a caveat: the study looked not primarily at the highest achievers, but mainly at lower-level professionals with bachelor's degrees. If fewer average women than average men go into these fields, maybe because their interests lie elsewhere, is that really a problem?

The body of the report also supports, rather than rebuts, the view that childrearing is a major factor in gender disparities. It cites a study that ``found single women scientists and engineers [were] 16 percent more likely than single men to be in tenure track jobs five years after the PhD, while married women with children were 45 percent less likely than married men with children to be in tenure track positions."

Yet these facts are treated as a result of discrimination against people with family responsibilities and of the outmoded assumption that a scientist has a spouse to take care of such matters. Proposed remedies include more family-friendly policies. But what if single-minded devotion to work really is essential to outstanding success in science?

None of this is to say that women are incapable of being outstanding scientists -- many women are, and their advances in these fields have been spectacular -- or that nothing can be done further to reduce the gender gap. Cultural stereotypes undoubtedly play a role in the fact that even mathematically and scientifically gifted girls are more likely than boys to choose ``human interest" professions rather than science.

We can also do more to reduce lingering prejudice against mothers who are not primary caregivers for their children, and against fathers who are. But even with these changes -- which need to take place in the culture as a whole, far more than in academic and scientific institutions -- the ratio of women to men in science and engineering may always remain below 1-to-1.

Ultimately, the report is a missed opportunity. It could have addressed the personal and family choices women could make to maximize their career potential, or looked at the factors in the high achievement of Asian-American women in science. (Asian-Americans are virtually ignored in all the talk of minority women in science.) Instead, it upholds an orthodoxy of female victimization. Women, and science, deserve better.

Source



Intolerance, a San Francisco treat

The events mentioned below are an old matter now but the implications are not

SAN FRANCISCANS may think of their town as a haven for tolerance, but once again, S.F. supervisors are showing the rest of America how intolerant The Special City can be. Forget a flower in your hair. If you come to San Francisco, be sure to wear a muzzle on your brain. Criticize a supervisor, and some supes will do their utmost to get you fired.

Last week, KGO radio talk-show host Pete Wilson made some comments about a child born to Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who is gay, and Rebecca Goldfader, who is a lesbian. As Wilson put it, a baby is "not an experiment. It is not an opportunity to see how far you can carry your views on parenting, alternative lifestyles or diversity in family structures." And: "Look around you, folks. You think the high divorce rate in this country has been, generally speaking, good for kids? So, why not start out divorced? See if that'll work." (While I am sure Dufty's daughter is a beautiful child, I, too, wonder if this Instant Family will last.)

Wilson supports same-sex marriage and gay parenting. Doesn't matter. Last week, S.F. Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and Aaron Peskin held a press conference at which they called Wilson "homophobic" and demanded that he resign his job. Yes, San Francisco is very tolerant -- unless you hold the wrong opinion. Then the supes will try to get you fired.

Dufty, to his credit, wrote in an e-mail to Wilson that read I do not want you to "resign or lose your position over this incident." Wilson marveled Monday that Dufty "showed more class than anyone else in this." Be it noted, Wilson has apologized -- not for his misgivings about parenting and children -- but for using "inappropriate" and overly personal language. Still, the uproar may not be over, as Wilson also anchors ABC7 TV news.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-S.F., did not call on Wilson to resign and now says, because Wilson has apologized, it is time to move on. Still, Leno also raised the question Monday of whether "it is inappropriate for Wilson to be wearing those two hats" -- that Wilson can't be a "loose cannon" on the radio and "an impartial anchorman." Be it noted that some journalists see a real conflict of interest in Wilson working as an anchorman and talk-show host. Then again, no one complained about the two hats before. Wilson has opposed the war in Iraq, and they weren't wringing their hands about his credibility then.

Judith Appel, executive director of the alternative-family Our Family Coalition, would not tell me if she thought Wilson should lose his job, or not. She attended the anti-Wilson event as it provided an "opportunity" to highlight alternative families with "adults who love their children."

Ammiano is the last man in the world I'd want for that mission. Deliberately ignoring Wilson's point, Ammiano accused the talk-show host of trying to "dehumanize a week-old baby." He declared that Wilson's "manhood is threatened." Noting that he would never criticize Wilson's offspring, Ammiano added, "I would never ask how much grunting and sweating there was -- and God knows it probably it didn't last very long -- at that kid's conception." Feel the love?

OK. That's the sort of puerile patter one routinely hears from Ammiano. What I don't understand is why Ross Mirkarimi -- the rare adult city pol, and a man who knows better -- was standing in that crowd. Leno, who like Ammiano is gay, told me, "I'm not going to criticize those supervisors." As he sees it, S.F. and gays are "the aggrieved party. We're the ones who are getting beaten up." Ammiano accused Wilson of "abuse of privilege," Peskin cited "abuses" of power. Except in this case, gays and S.F. supes are in power -- and they're trying to get a man fired for expressing views they don't like. They clearly don't appreciate the beauty of free speech: When you don't like what someone says, you talk back. You don't silence dissenters, unless you are afraid of what they say.

If you want the world to understand who you are, you show understanding for others. If Ammiano wanted to send a message -- that when the gay lobby has power, straight Americans will enjoy less freedom -- he could not have done a better job.

Source



An interesting test for an Australian "Human Rights" watchdog

I'm betting that the Mufti will be allowed the defence of free speech -- a defence the HREOC did not allow when they prosecuted two Christian critics of Islam. In my view both the Christians AND the Mufti were entitled to say what they did without legal penalty. The HREOC might however weasel out of this one by claiming no jurisdiction (The Sheik lives in another State -- NSW)

A Melbourne grandmother has accused Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilaly of inciting racial hatred and of sexual discrimination. Elaine Davidson made her complaint against the "divisive" mufti to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission this week. Mrs Davidson said she was deeply offended by el-Hilaly's reported comments in a service last month that claimed immodestly dressed women invited rape and were like "uncovered meat". "I'm a white, Western woman of high morals and I was offended," she said, adding that she wants a personal apology and may take civil action against the mufti. "I'm not doing this to be vindictive or anything else. As a woman I'm just sick of this man mouthing off. "He's making sweeping generalisations. Anyone who's not a Muslim woman or of his ethnic origin is being hurled into this melting pot of meat thrown to the cats."

Mrs Davidson, 52, a recreational health lecturer from Melbourne's outer east who specialises in sexual health issues, said she had complained verbally to the commission. She would reinforce it with a letter this week. "I am incensed, disgusted, offended and I feel internally brutally bashed by him," she said. "He has incited racial, religious and sexual hatred. "It's a human rights issue. I need to be protected as an Australian woman."

The mufti's Sydney friend, Keysar Trad, said the cleric "did not address the comments to her (Mrs Davidson), did not make them about her".

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