Reflections, Reflections

I was going to overlook the Summers controversy entirely, but I did end up making a comment at Ideas Hatched, where he said:

[...]

5) Before I lose all my women readers, I'd also point out that there are different types of intelligences, and that women are far better with words then men. Have you ever played Boggle with a chick? It's a humbling experience. If Harvard had a Boggle faculty, this whole debate would be reversed.

Poor Larry Summers is now on a worldwide apology tour in a desperate salvo to save his job. It won't work, because those he is apologizing to won't stop until they have his head (he's already given up one part of his male anatomy). Why? Because if what he said has any glimmer of truth, then the notion that discrimination accounts entirely for the lack of women scientists cannot hold true, and it even becomes possible that discrimination doesn't account at all for such disparities. That would go against the dogma of academics, and as such constitutes heresy! Showing them the data will do no better for Summers than it did for Galileo with the Church.

I think socialization has far more profound effects on the great majority of people than genetics. And your observation about the types of intelligence is not to be overlooked. Given that men have been politically dominant, and most all the wars and genocides and rapes and forced starvation happened because of their enormous "intelligence," big deal about their IQ measurements. What is an IQ without ethics? A monster.

I think the biggest problem with repeating to people "men are the most intelligent" is that this has a detrimental psychological impact on many girls and women (although not all).

It's amazing what happens to a child or adult when you tell them they aren't capable to do something or they are not as good as others, instead of telling them they can reach the sky.

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