The word’s out now. Men are smarter…. Nuff said…. Even more troubling ... is the fact that Former Ontario Premier said he'd have fired Ruston if he'd have had the power to do so. How is this Ok?
Wait a minute! Yikes! – What did I just read at LiveScience? “Men are smarter than women, according to a controversial new study that adds another cinder to the fiery debate over whether gender impacts general intelligence.” 
Can you guess the gender of this finding… Philippe Rushton, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Ouch! What I find particularly compelling is that the entire study is based on a deeply out-dated notion of intelligence… the g-factor.
This controversy seems to take up where Harvard President Lawrence Summers left off last year when he argued that males have a higher intrinsic aptitude in science and engineering.
“But when it comes to Nobel Prize winners, he said that men could outnumber women 10-to-1…, Rushton said.
Here are my questions:
1. Why are we still using a definition for intelligence that is refuted by the gurus in the field?
2. What can we include from the brilliance of women in more historic accounts that would include them among Nobel Prize winners?
3. Who has the energy to take on another person who diminishes humans of either gender?
4. Where do these guys get funding to spread biases rather than exchange solid facts?
What do you think?
Jean Vanier, also Canadian, had a completely opposite view of intelligence. He found more intelligence put forth by folks with special needs than he did by brilliant folks at university. So he gave up that life to learn from these precious folks and work amongst them. Thoughts!
Posted by: Robyn McMaster | September 10, 2006 12:04 PM | Permalink to Comment