I intended to post this message a few days ago but apparently it wasn't
successfully sent. If it HAS already been sent and received, please
forgive me for posting it again.
First, I'd like to introduce Luke Howison, who began this discussion
off-list. I asked if it would be OK with him to forward parts of the
discussion to the list, because it seemed the sort of thing that might be
of general interest. This will be Luke's first appearance on the list.
Our hypotheses are: 1. that more women than men hold non-scientific
beliefs; and 2. that in general males tend to be more interested in
mathematics and science than women.
I know there have been studies supporting the 2nd hypothesis; I'm not
sure about the first. Unanswered questions include: 1. If either of the
above hypotheses is true, what might be the explanation? 2. Would it be
desirable to change the situation--eg. to target young girls for extra
training in scientific areas?
An observation I made was that from birth boy and girl babies are
generally treated differently, one difference being that girl babies are
more closely protected. I wondered if this early protection might
prevent girls from developing an understanding of the way things work
(eg. if a little girl isn't allowed to play on the see-saw she'd lack an
early grasp of the concept that Work= Force x Distance) .
Barbara
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Luke Howison" <lukeh@ihug.co.nz>
To: "Barbara Lamar" <shabrika@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 19:34:04 +1200
Subject: Gender Differences of Scientific Beliefs
Message-ID: <LPBBKGIHONIFEECEECIFGEFPCAAA.lukeh@ihug.co.nz>
...
For example, more women read (and believe in) horoscopes, more men than
women are atheists etc.
Closer to home, on this list there are fewer female posters than males.
What are the reasons for women as a group being more
interested in the psychic and spriitual than men? Is it simply a
cultural
phenomena, with Western society encouraging sicence and technology as
masculine pursuits, or does it have a more biological basis -
gender-related
hormones, brain structure and neurochemistry?
Obviously our society expects women to be more emotional than men, but
some
studies have shown that the difference is because men hide their emotions
more.
Female-interest magazines tend to include subjects like:
--> Horoscopes and 'Psychic Friends', clairvoyants and their ilk.
Uncritical articles about faith healing, clairvoyants, ghosts, hauntings,
etc.
--> World-views which propound 'spiritual needs', are closely identified
with emotional needs.
--> A less scientific world-view, with a general lack of articles about
scientific progress, some anti-scientific attitudes, etc.
--> A noticeably Christian-values type viewpoint, expecting readers to
have
'virtues' and other emotionally-religiously connected concepts. (Well,
some
of them!).
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