If You’re A Woman And You’re Bad At Math, Blame the Patriarchy | Just your daily reminder that because you're a man, absolutely everything is your fault

LucifersHammerr · 2017-03-03T20:18:23+00:00

I wonder how many women realize that they will never be respected if they refuse to take responsibility for their actions?

Women used to be respected for their roles, and yes that included working women. But you can't try to "compete" with men then demand artificial privileges while simultaneously claiming to be both superior and oppressed. Feminists sound like crazy religious fundamentalists blaming the devil for everything.

As for math and STEM, Norway already tried wasting millions trying to get women into those fields. It failed miserably. Turns out the more choice women have, the less likely they are to pursue traditionally "male" occupations.

I suspect most feminists subconsciously realize this. However, like spoiled children they get a perverse thrill out of complaining about daddy aka patriarchy. They are essentially playing a society-wide game of damsel in distress.

Greg_W_Allan · 2017-03-03T16:32:53+00:00

Christina Hoff Sommers - Women earn most of America’s advanced degrees but lag in the physical sciences. Beware of plans to fix the “problem.”

Virginia Valian, a psychologist at Hunter College, is one of the most cited authorities in the crusade to achieve equity for women in the sciences. Her book Why So Slow? (MIT Press, 1998) is indispensable to the movement because it offers a solution to a vexing problem: women’s seemingly free but actually self-defeating choices. Not only do fewer women than men choose to enter the physical sciences, but even those who do often give child care and family a higher priority than their male colleagues. How, in the face of women’s clear tendencies to choose other careers and more balanced lifestyles, can one reasonably attribute the scarcity of women in science and engineering to unconscious bias and sexist discrimination? Valian showed the way.

Her central claim is that our male-dominated society constructs and enforces “gender schemas.” A gender schema is an accepted system of beliefs about the ways men and women differ—a system that determines what suits each gender. Writes Valian: “In white, Western middle-class society, the gender schema for men includes being capable of independent, autonomous action…[and being] assertive, instrumental, and task-oriented. Men act. The gender schema for women is different; it includes being nurturant, expressive, communal, and concerned about others.”

Valian does not deny that gender schemas have a foundation in biology, but she insists that culture can intensify or diminish their power and effect. Our society, she says, pressures women to indulge their nurturing propensities while it encourages men to develop “a strong commitment to earning and prestige, great dedication to the job, and an intense desire for achievement.” All this inevitably results in a permanently unfair advantage for men.

To achieve a gender-fair society, Valian advocates a concerted attack on conventional gender schemas. This includes altering the way we raise our children. Consider the custom of encouraging girls to play with dolls. Such early socialization, she says, creates an association between being female and being nurturing. Valian concludes, “Egalitarian parents can bring up their children so that both boys and girls play with dolls and trucks…. From the standpoint of equality, nothing is more important.”

But what if our daughters are not especially interested in trucks, as almost any parent can attest (including me: when my son recently gave his daughter a toy train to play with, she placed it in a baby carriage and covered it with a blanket so it could get some sleep)? Not a problem, says Valian.

“We don’t accept biology as destiny…. We vaccinate, we inoculate, we medicate…. I propose we adopt the same attitude toward biological sex differences.” In other words, the ubiquitous female propensity to nurture should be treated as a kind of disorder or disease.

Valian is intent on radically transforming society to achieve her egalitarian ideals. She also wants to alter the behavior of successful scientists. Their obsessive work habits, single-minded dedication, and “intense desire for achievement,” not only marginalize women, but also may compromise good science. She writes, “If we continue to emphasize and reward always being on the job, we will never find out whether leading a balanced life leads to equally good or better scientific work.”

Valian may be a leader in the equity-in-science movement, but she is not an empirical thinker. A world where women (and resocialized men) earn Nobel Prizes on flextime has no relation to reality. Unfortunately, her outré worldview is not confined to women’s studies. It is a guiding light for some of the nation’s leading scientific institutions.

Richafod · 2017-03-03T15:47:54+00:00

I cant believe this is a recently published article, granted its the usual inflammatory trash from Buzzfeed but this seems even further detached from reality than usual.

xNOM · 2017-03-03T19:52:04+00:00

Then, when they go to school and start learning math, the girls perform poorly, to a large extent because they believe that they’re not good enough to succeed.

ROFL citation needed.

Sex differences in academic achievement are not related to political, economic, or social equality

EricAllonde · 2017-03-03T15:47:09+00:00

But at times this article seems like it's not really even trying:

What’s even worse is that there is a conspicuous lack of female role models for young girls who want to go into STEM professions. Around the world, few mothers of 15-year-olds actually work in STEM professions.

(Although there is no strong evidence suggesting that the gender gap in achievement in mathematics is greatly affected in instances in which a child’s mother does work in a STEM profession.)

2017-03-03T15:52:08+00:00

Statistics and numbers can be used as evidence for discrimination and oppression. When statistics and numbers show women do badly or are absent, it's evidence of discrimination and oppression.

Okay, let's see. What about when the statistics and numbers show these things for men? No that's just not the same.

cinemashow · 2017-03-03T17:55:30+00:00

Anyone else thinking: that because you're a white man, absolutely everything is your fault ... ?

Greg_W_Allan · 2017-03-04T01:36:57+00:00

I'd rather know what a mathematician has to say about it than some pop journo.

Sex Differences in Mathematical Aptitude

The Sex Gap in Mathematics Revisited: A Theory of Everyone

tablepants · 2017-03-04T03:39:12+00:00

I'm still taking college-level math courses myself, but to date close to half of my math instructors in my college have been women. The female tutors have been exceptionally helpful to me.

Then I see women being butthurt that their gender somehow affects their ability to learn a skill?

Title	If You’re A Woman And You’re Bad At Math, Blame the Patriarchy \| Just your daily reminder that because you're a man, absolutely everything is your fault
Author	EricAllonde
Upvotes	49
Comments	14
Date	March 3, 2017 3:45 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/5xb1ak/if_youre_a_woman_and_youre_bad_at_math_blame_the/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/if-youre-a-woman-and-youre-bad-at-math-blame-the.930529 https://theredarchive.com/post/930529