The Miseducation of Women by James Tooley

Author:James Tooley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
Published: 2003-04-04T05:00:00+00:00

WHAT ARE THE GENDER DIFFERENCES

THAT NEED EXPLAINING?

So what are the gender differences that may be relevant to our concerns here? Some might think that the only educationally relevant differences will concern cognitive ability – differences concerning ability in mathematics and languages, for instance. However, I want to cast the net more widely. For the discussion of this book has focused on the way women and men are guided towards careers and relationships at least in part by what goes on in schools, with many suggestions that this ‘guidance’ offends many women’s preferences for what they may want to prioritize in their lives. So let us begin by looking at a selection of gender differences across a wide range of possibilities, including relationship preferences and parenting styles, as well as cognitive differences. In this way, we aim to build up a picture of the ways men and women are different that might be educationally relevant.

Before proceeding, it is crucial to be clear at the outset about two things. First, that throughout this chapter we are talking about statistical differences, so there will always be exceptions to these generalizations. Think of the statistical generalization that men are, on average, taller than women. This is a fact: in the USA, the average height of men and women differs by about six inches. However, no one thinks that this fact can be disputed by finding, as is the case, that some women are taller than many men. So if you as a woman read certain figures and think, ‘well, I’m not like that’, this does not mean to say that the figure is not true as a generalization. You may not be like it, but the statistic means that women in general are. The same goes for men. I labour this point because I remember seeing a highly acclaimed woman on television challenging a point about Irish women with: ‘Look at me, I’m not like that, so how can it be true?’ Which either shows that even she needed this point spelled out, or that she was being disingenuous (in which case hoping to hoodwink the audience, again showing the need to spell this out carefully).

Second, it is very important to realize that even small between-sex differences can have a huge effect on ratios at the extremes. Again, consider the sex difference in heights. An average height difference of six inches between men and women may not sound much, but this has a very big impact when you start to look at the tallest individuals. The male average height is about five foot ten inches. Even at this average height, there are about 30 men to every woman. Just two inches taller, at six foot, and there are 2000 men to every woman. By the time you reach six foot, eight inches, there are virtually no women at all.7 Likewise, only a small between-gender difference in mathematical ability, say, could lead to huge differences in performance in tests, and in the proportion of men and women going into particular jobs.

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