Yes!\u00a0 Someone finally, explicitly answered a question to which we were all awaiting the cut and dry answer.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u201d (Many cheers and clinking of glasses.)<\/p>\n
Melissa Hines actually answers the title question of her article \u201cDo sex differences in cognition cause the shortage of women in science?\u201d by stating, \u201cInnate sex differences in cognitive abilities do not cause the shortage of women in science\u201d \u00a0(101).\u00a0 She sticks it to the old, unhip science by challenging preconceived notions such as a specific characteristic shows an innate, immutable sex difference, bigger brains equal bigger knowledge, men are limited to excelling on spatial and math abilities and women are limited to excelling on verbal abilities, kids get spatial ability from parents, prenatal exposure to androgen increases intelligence, and hormones are the culprit. \u00a0Yes! \u00a0Greatly appreciated, Dr. Hines!<\/p>\n
Alright, there you have it, folks.\u00a0 We can all go home and wipe the sweat of anticipation from our brows.\u00a0 UM, NO.\u00a0 WE CANNOT DO THAT.\u00a0 Never become complacent in the realm of science.\u00a0 Never yawn in the face of progress.<\/p>\n
While I appreciate Dr. Hines tackling and calling out dated results of ill-conceived studies, I believe she<\/em> even falls short of providing more supporting data with specifically two of her arguments:\u00a0 (1) the correlation between brain size and intelligence (for I think that to be a relevant and unnecessarily convoluted topic) and (2) sex differences in cognition are smaller than sex differences in behavior\u2014 for I see they lack a broader \u201chowever\u201d.\u00a0 On the other hand, there is only but so much one can fit in a written article that attempts to answer unanswered questions:\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t there more women in science?\u00a0 Do sex differences in cognition cause the shortage?\u00a0 As I browse resources trying to find the catch-up to her short-falls, the end-all-and-be-all, I am greeted by endless results on the brain\u2014how this part may affect this part which would affect male in this way and females in another.\u00a0 How do we know when to end?<\/p>\n As far as this article goes, I must say, in my opinion, this was by far the most interesting, engaging, and well-supported one that I have read thus far.\u00a0 Her three main \u201chowever\u201d arguments (1) how typical cognitive sex differences that come to our minds (verbal and spatial abilities) are oversimplifications; (2) influence of early versus adult hormonal exposure on brain development; and (3) the debunking of the suggestion prenatal exposure to androgen increases intelligence were all very well supported and truly altered my perception on the question of why there aren\u2019t more women in science.\u00a0 It has me questioning what I have read in the past\u2026 and if I read in the past is the \u201creal cheese\u201d and rather if Dr. Hines\u2019 article is the stinky soy cheese!\u00a0 Science is a sticky spectacular thing in itself; and once you add the science of social science (gender issues within STEM fields) to the mix, it becomes almost like wet cement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yes!\u00a0 Someone finally, explicitly answered a question to which we were all awaiting the cut and dry answer.\u00a0 \u201cNo.\u201d (Many cheers and clinking of glasses.) Melissa Hines actually answers the title question of her article \u201cDo sex differences in cognition cause the shortage of women in science?\u201d by stating, \u201cInnate sex differences in cognitive abilities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/fyswns14\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}