naz@uunet.UU.NET (Norman H. Azadian) (11/30/88)
In article <8676@spl1.UUCP> djk@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Doris J. Karlson) writes: > >These findings suggest that it is not the case that women are "alien >to the world of logic", but that women can express both logical and >non-logical ideas. (Non-logical does not imply illogical.) And men >are less capable of expressing non-logical ideas. ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Um, you want to be careful how you throw those generalizations around. >From the limited information you present on the study, several other, equally valid, conclusions could be reached. For instance: a) Men are less likely to be confused by the emotional aspects of an issue. b) When asked for the facts, men are more likely to present the facts rather than opinion. This in no way precludes the ability to offer up fuzzy opinion when so requested. c) Men are more likely to be impressed by the logic, women by the emotions of the event. d) Women tend to be more in tune with the emotions of the people involved, whereas men are apt to ignore them. >From what you presented of the study, women were not presented as being more *capable* of expressing non-logical ideas, simply more *likely* to do so. The distinction is, I think, critical. -------------------- My theory is that good spatial perception is a relatively good indicater of a talent for such things as problem solving, computer programming, architecture, and mathematics. Since spatial perception is associated with the non-logical side of the brain, then biology should favor women in these professions. Is my theory wrong, or has the slight biological edge been consistently overwhelmed by societal mores? -------------------- Another article wondered why many inanimate objects (generally associated with men) are treated as feminine. I can think of a few reasons. First, since these things (ships, cars, computers) are traditionally male-dominated, it seems natural that they should be associated with what is uppermost in the male mind -- women. For thousands of years men have had a love affair with ships. "Nothing is so fine as messing about in boats" [a rough quote, from "Wind in the Willows", I think]. The same could be said of women. >From a male perspective, women are both wonderful and incomprehensible. Let me hasten to say that the same is probably true about men from a female perspective. However, since until recently men were creating the traditions in the areas of boats, cars, and computers, it seems only natural that these wonderful-in-spite-of-all-idiosyncracies things should be compared to something humanly equivalent. --------------------- Many interesting ideas have been discussed in this group. Has anybody else noticed that they don't have much to do with women in computing? NHA -- PAPER: Norman Azadian; Hasler AG; Belpstrasse 23; 3000 Berne 14; Switzerland X.400: naz@hslrswi.hasler UUCP: ...{uunet,ukc,mcvax,...}!cernvax!hslrswi!azadian VOICE: +41 31 63 2178 BITNET: naz%hslrswi.UUCP@cernvax.BITNET
sue@uunet.UU.NET (Sue McPherson) (12/02/88)
In article <5916@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> mcvax!hslrswi!naz@uunet.UU.NET (Norman H. Azadian) writes: >In article <8676@spl1.UUCP> djk@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Doris J. Karlson) writes: >>These findings suggest that it is not the case that women are "alien >>to the world of logic", but that women can express both logical and >>non-logical ideas. (Non-logical does not imply illogical.) And men >>are less capable of expressing non-logical ideas. ^^^ >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >My theory is that good spatial perception is a relatively good indicater of a >talent for such things as problem solving, computer programming, architecture, >and mathematics. Since spatial perception is associated with the non-logical >side of the brain, then biology should favor women in these professions. Enough of theories, here is some info on a study done on the subject! Some years ago (1978 ?) I was part of study which looked at sex differences in problem solving, spacial perception and IQ. The study (done by Monash Uni) used several groups, boys & girls from a co-ed high school, as well as boys and girls from single sex schools which were academically oriented. The main reason for this was to try to get a group of girls who's performance would not be affected by "girls can't do maths" attitudes or biased teaching methods. About six months after we did the tests, they came back and gave us a summary of their results which were (very generally speaking); - In overall IQ there were more boys at the top end of the scale, but there were also more boys at the bottom end. There were more girls closer to the average which was about the same for both boys and girls. - That boys tended to be better at spacial problems, while girls were better at the grammer problems (ie. This is a grammer rule, apply it to the following sentences). They interpreted these results to mean that boys were more intuitive and girls where more logical!! One example they gave was in solving a maths problem, boys were more likely to skip a few steps in working out the answer and then go back and fill them in while girls were more likely to start at the beginning and work methodically through to the solution. Of course they finished with a disclaimer that there were lots of exceptions to these rules. If anyone is really interested I could try and find out where they published their results. Sue McPherson sue@murdu.mu.oz