Originally Posted by http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/thoughts/050509-1384.asp
nnate differences reliably established
(from the U of T Bulletin, May 9/05)
Apparently the existence of innate differences between men and women is as contentious at the University of Toronto as it is at Harvard (Differences in National Cultures Overlooked and Women Still Fair Game, Letters, April 25).
Ed Andrew makes an interesting point that is often raised to suggest that barriers to women in the physical sciences are purely cultural. Of course, this argument is persuasive only if universities in the countries he cites attract the most mathematically and scientifically able individuals as they do in the United States, Canada and Britain. If, as Professor Andrew himself notes, these gifted individuals instead gravitate to industry or emigrate because of low academic salaries, then the high female percentages in these universities mean little.
Vassos Hadzilacos appears to believe that there are no innate differences between men and women, at least not in the sphere of intellectual abilities. While this may comfort him and his fellow ideologues, it is simply not true. As Doreen Kimura has observed in her book Sex and Cognition, it has been reliably established for several decades now that the same prenatal hormones that produce the obvious physical differences between the sexes also strongly influence many behaviours and abilities. These differences have been especially well established for such mental attributes as spatial tasks and mathematical reasoning, particularly at the highest level, where men excel as well as object location and verbal memory where women excel. Added to these differences in aptitude are different inborn preferences — men prefer object-oriented occupations, women prefer more person-oriented fields.
No one would deny the existence of cases of past discrimination and, of course, there is substantial overlap between the sexes where they differ on average. However, it is no surprise that people self-select into occupations based on their own talents and interests and thus the sexes are not present in equal numbers everywhere. Equal opportunity does not result in equal outcomes.
John Graydon
Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry