Message from @Rai
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Do you think there has been any reliable study on why women seem to be generally better in languages and men better in maths/sciences? Do you think this is even the case?
Not sure about studies... But it ties into the people vs things argument. People speak languages, things speak math
There are studies suggesting that this is true
I believe it has something to do with how men and women think and view the world
Women approach something by looking at it as a whole. Parts only contribute to the whole, and only the whole is assessed
Men like to break bigger things into parts
Breaking big concepts into parts is crucial to fields like math/science, where the questions being answered don't have an easy solution you can just observe. You can't solve problems in these fields without first breaking them into stages, or steps, or testable metrics
For fields studying language and society, linguistics anthropology psychology etc., The whole is ultimately the only thing that matters. The whole language is how we communicate. The whole culture defines the society. The whole brain is how we think
Putting parts together into a whole is a big deal in those fields
That's why women have a tendency to take these kinds of jobs, while men take jobs that involve breaking big, complex questions into parts
@Rai yea thats basically what i thought too but reading a paper on it would be very interesting
Language is more important in terms of evolution to women than men. Women are better at colour perception because of the traditional foraging role, they are better at communication as they are the news network and library of bronze-age society.
Men meanwhile, as the hunters and warriors, need to be better at split-second decision making based on precise analysis of the environmental data. it is also more vital for bronze-age man to make precise, calculated decisions as they are often life-or-death, whilst for women the imperative is on maintaining emotional and social cohesion of the group.
Of course it is worth noting that these are generalisations and you will get some women better suited to hunting, construction, fighting and so forth and some men better at recalling knowledge or social cohesion. But in general, these principles continue into the present day and result in the skew in vocations that men and women continue to exhibit, even when women have more-than-equal oppertunities to take up roles in traditional-male roles.
@Skellious While these traits may be true for the evolution of past ages, what advantage do these things mean to our current age? We have built a society around NOT using brute force or physical prowess. Communication is king, yet it is still men that dominate the scholarly and philosophical pursuits. Should it not be women that hold this mantle with their enhanced evolution of perception and communication?
@Silver_The_Bard Actually, studies show women do better in school than men. How much of this is due to biased teachers and department standards varies
But I'd say most of it can be chalked up to the teaching style used today. Students get lectured at and try their best to remember it and regurgitate it on an exam, which is not quite how it was even one generation ago. Women are better at school as it is today
It could also be because there are more services, scholarships etc. designed to help women, as well as more women being admitted into college in general equating to more chances for success
Another factor, like I mentioned, is department standards
Liberal arts departments like psychology give extra credit in their courses more often, while STEM, business, and other majors men would do better in hardly ever give extra credit
Studies also show teachers mark girls less harshly
Like I said, bias from instructors plays a role. The bias gets worse if the teacher is female
Therefore I don't find it accurate to say they do better in school, but that others skew the results so they appear to. They aren't gaining that by themselves
No, the actual style is more suited to women
Bias plays a role, but it's not the only factor
Men tend to enjoy learning through experience
The number of degrees that employ this type of learning is very low
I don't deny that the environment and method is more suited toward the way girls learn, but without the bias by itself I do think there'd be a marked improvement to at least bring boys up to the same level. I'll agree that the bias varies and it's not the only factor but it's not like it's a small factor