“Women need to earn less than men because they are more fragile, smaller and less intelligent. These statements were made by a Polish mp just over a year ago. Unfortunately, we’ve all heard unfortunate comments about the intelligence differences between men and women. “.
The most common popular belief is that women are better in the humanities, while men would be better with the exact ones. But what is the scientific basis for this comparison?Is that really true?
- Some researchers criticize studies on gender differences because they believe they can promote false stereotypes and prejudices.
- In this sense.
- You might think that prejudices can also arise from lack of data.
- So the survey is the only way to separate myths from In general.
- That’s what Diane Halpern.
- An American psychologist said.
- When asked about it.
The truth is that most studies on differences in intelligence go in the same direction, based on the results of these studies it was observed that there was virtually no difference in intelligence between men and women, in some cases small differences are in favor of men, while in others they are in favor of women.
To study the intelligence differences between the sexes several mechanisms were used, some of the best known are the g-factor, the Cattell model or the progressive matrix test; however, none of them have a significant and systematic difference between men and women. However, it was possible to see that similar test results were sometimes associated with different patterns of brain activity. While women made greater use of the areas of the brain responsible for processing speed, men made greater use of the regions responsible for decision-making. Doing.
In view of the above, it is clear that there are no differences in intelligence between men and women in general, but what if we talk about specific issues or areas ?, are there differences between men and women in the exact or human?Domains?
In that case, we could say yes, there are significant differences, it has been observed that women do better in verbal testing, word knowledge, text comprehension and processing speed, while humans do better in space tests, arithmetic and mechanical comprehension sciences.
In addition, there is another important piece of information: the observed differences do not seem to continue over time. When analyzing the trend, it can be observed that these differences are decreasing: the average scores obtained by men and women are equal. It would make sense to ask if the specific skill differences are really due to a lack of ability or just stereotypes. Is it possible that women score lower in math because they are not motivated / uncomfortable to study this subject? for men to do the same?
The Flynn effect is the name given to a curious phenomenon, the fact is that if we compare the results of intelligence tests conducted two decades ago with the results of those that are currently performed, we realize that in many parts of the world At all, the intellectual quotient (CI) of the population has increased. This phenomenon or effect could be explained by general improvements in diet, education or the tendency to form smaller families.
Taking mathematics as a reference, for example, it has been observed that both men and women have improved markedly in recent decades, in addition, as mentioned, this improvement led to a decrease in differences, so in mathematics absolute improvement was greater in the women’s group.
The intelligence differences between the sexes are very small, if not non-existent.
This evolution of the results indicates, therefore, that such differences may point more to a cultural origin than to genetics, if so, it is our responsibility and that of educators to stop promoting stereotypes and start motivating men and women in the same way. , making it easier for them to decide what they want to study.
As we have seen, the intelligence differences between the sexes are very small, if not non-existent. It is a fact that specific differences in skills, such as verbal, spatial or digital, continue to be recorded; however, it is also a fact that these differences seem to decrease, which somehow excludes the explanation that they have a genetic origin, so, as a society, we have an important role in the emergence of these differences and it is up to us to work to make them disappear. Let’s do our part.