A lesson in cherry-picking generalizations to suit your agenda?

Question

Which of the following unscientific or minimally studied "facts" are TRUE?

1. Women are not as good at math or science than men.

2. Women have a higher tolerance for pain.

3. Men are more logical.

4. Women can multitask better than men.

5. Women are more emotional than men.

6. Men are less mature than women.

Answer 1

All of these can be proved wrong. Cause you know as well as I do women are capable of performing tricky math calculations. The pain tolerance is a moot point. Men are more logical; all depends upon whether the woman operates with a male or female brain; the same goes for men; some even work with bridged brains. As for the multitasking, that depends upon the woman; I can't, and I'm a woman. How my sister could do her homework and listen to her stereo at the same time was way beyond me. Women are more emotional; sometimes it flip-flops. Men are less mature; at one point when we are growing up yes; however, it changes once men reach a certain age; from there it flip-flops.

Answer 2

There are so many differences even between members of the same gender that generalizations are never correct.  Generalizations serve only one purpose, to take away a person's individuality and give them an often undeserved ability or lack of ability.  It is better to see everyone as an individual, and take the time to find their individual qualities.

Answer 3

I think only the first two have any sort of scientific credibility behind them, though only in specific situations.

For the first one, the strongest evidence comes from the development of the IQ test and scholastic exams including the SAT and ACT over the past century.  In all of these exams, efforts have been made at several points to try to 'normalize' the results between men and women; that is, make sure that the average male scores the same as the average female by adjusting the content of the test.  As it was consistently observed, if you wanted to make the test so that women scored better, you included more questions having to do with communication, literature, and verbal/literal comprehension.  If you needed to increase the average score for men, you put more emphasis on basic math problems, spatial thinking puzzles, and logical puzzles.

As for the second one, again, the situation is restricted, but it's fairly well understood that women produce unique hormones during childbirth to act both as natural painkillers and 'amnesics' (i.e. hormones that reduce one's ability to remember and fear pain), so this one's pretty straightforward.

As for the others, I don't think I could come up with any studies or credible literature for them offhand (unless you wanted to tie in #3 with #1, though again this would be evidenced only in the context of standardized testing), but I don't pretend to be expert enough to dismiss them - perhaps they may be evidenced by something I simply haven't heard of.

Answer 4

I know that a lot of the anti feminists men on here love # 1, 3, and 5 for ego reasons.

Answer 5

1. Women are not as good at math or science than men.

(True)

2. Women have a higher tolerance for pain.

(False)

3. Men are more logical.

(True)

4. Women can multitask better than men.

(Maybe)

5. Women are more emotional than men.

(True)

6. Men are less mature than women.

(False)

Edit... Other items mentioned.

7. Women use crying to get what they want

(Mostly True - especially in the workplace)

8. Women think all men are rapists

(I can't answer for women, but women will readily make false rape allegations to cover for their misdeeds... which in the long run hurt the real rape cases)

9. Any woman who supports feminism and reads every once in a while is stinkin' thinkin' and a man-hater

(False)

10. All women are lesbians at one point or another

(Can't answer for women, but most likely false)

11. We women hate all other women because they are competition

(Generally true)

12. Women don't stand up for every single thing brought up in YA

(Huh?)

13. All women are evil

(Obviously False... My mother, wife and daughters are not evil.  However, my MIL is a spawn)

These are GENERALIZATIONS based upon personal observations and corroborated by other men and women.  I do not claim they are scientific theories, scientific truths or scientific laws.  Theories and Laws require scientific studies and testing, but we are talking about GENERALIZATIONS then NO scientific proof is required.  Your question is about generalizations then my generalizations are just as valid as the next persons.

Edit Again...

Many people are quoting studies and all that other nonsense.  Studies have their bias especially when it comes down to gender issues where you're trying to measure something that's not easily quantifiable.  

Some of you really need to get out of academia and look at the real world around you.  You'll see the sources of the generalization - real people living their lives.  We all make generalizations and decisions in our lives without the need for scientific proof.  If we waited for scientific proof on everything then we'll all suffer from "analysis paralysis" while life goes on.

Again, we are talking about GENERALIZATIONS... which means how the "general" populace behaves.  Of course, you can find the exception, but that's not the point.  People arguing that there are exceptions, therefore, the generlization is false clearly do not undertand what "generalization" means and how it's applied.

Am I wasting my time applying logic to speak to an illogical group?

Answer 6

Raises hand, I'm stuck on number one :-D

Answer 7

1....False

2....True

3....False

4....True

5....False

6....True

I am Male and I think my answers are a fair response based on my own experiences with people and reading and study of people in our time.

Answer 8

7. Women use crying to get what they want

8. Women think all men are rapists

9. Any woman who supports feminism and reads every once in a while is stinkin' thinkin' and a man-hater

10. All women are lesbians at one point or another

11. We women hate all other women because they are competition

12. Women don't stand up for every single thing brought up in YA

13. All women are evil

Oooooh - I got more! haha

Answer 9

And is this what keeps you up at night.

Answer 10

You tell me which ones you use to support your agenda, and I'll take the leftovers.

Answer 11

None. None of those are true. Good luck to anyone who tries to look for the "proof" that they are.

Answer 12

Very true, I'd find it hard to find a study to back up any of them claims.

From what I've seen a lot of gender typing is down to the way we're socialised.  If your told a lie for long enough your going to believe it to be true.  

All you have to do is look to see what toys are aimed at what gender to see why we grow up with the assumptions we have,

The caring emotional woman and the logical strong man.

_____________________________

Mike T

http://people.howstuffworks.com/women1.h...

I presume you are talking about this article.

On Emotion:  Your article is talking about perceptions:  

90% of Americans said the word emotional applied more to women than men.  Perception not fact.

New York times article on crying again it was perception.  How many men do you think are going to say they cry often?

Finally more women seek treatment for depression than men.  

All this tells us is that more women seek treatment not if more women are depressed.

I'm not saying men cry more than women but I've yet to see a large scale valid study to tell me one way or another.

In any case the way we are socialised, not our gender will have a much greater impact on whether or not we cry or not.

_________________________

Mike I've read through the whole thing and all I see is speculation, opinions and perceptions.  Small differences (across the average) in brain chemistry does not prove women are more emotional than men.

Answer 13

According to me these are the true facts:

1. Women have a higher tolerance for pain.

2. Men are more logical.

3. Women can multitask better than men.

Answer 14

All of those have been shown to be true as generalisations, except the second one which is the other way round. As a general rule, men are more logical and women are more emotional etc. because men and women's brains are wired differently. That's scientific fact, which has been repeatedly shown in studies.

Of course we're all individuals, and not everybody fits those rules. I don't think anyone should have opportunities or rights denied because of them, but that doesn't mean there aren't general trends in male/female behaviour that are linked to the way our brains are formed. Exceptions don't disprove scientific rules.

Answer 15

Mike T just referred me to a great article that proves Tracy's point quite nicely. Unfortunately due to his illiteracy, he thought it proves that stereotypes are true...poor thing.

Interesting reading thanks to Mike T:

Girls often make better grades in math than boys do. Researchers theorize that the stereotype that women are not good at math may be partly to blame for this discrepancy. According to Dr. Robert Josephs of the University of Texas-Austin, women fear that their performance on standardized tests will prove that they're bad at math. For this reason, they don't do as well on tests, regardless of whether they've made good grades in math classes. Men, on the other hand, see such tests as an opportunity to prove that they are good at math, so they perform better [Source: Psychology Today].

In addition, women tend to receive higher scores on math tests when they take them without men in the room. According to one study that evaluated men and women who had made similar SAT scores, women's scores increase by up to 12 percent when taking tests without men in the room. Researchers say this is due to a stereotype threat, or a fear that a person will conform to a common stereotype [Source: Cook].

Regardless of how well they score on standardized tests, women seem to be able to develop math skills that are equal to men's. A large-scale analysis of data also suggests that there's very little difference between men and women's abilities in math [Source: Economist].

Answer 16

As you said, they are generalizations, and as such will have exceptions to disprove them everytime someone proves it.

Their credibility in all situations/people is questionable. I stop at saying that they are just generalizations, because my agenda is NOT to prove that men are more logical and women are more emotional.

Answer 17

There is plenty of evidence to support some/most of those statements.

That they contradict politically correct femmunist dogma is really irrelevant when it comes to the scientific method.

Answer 18

Ok, I'll play.

1, 3, 5, and 6 are true, and possibly 4.

Answer 19

Excellent idea, but I think you may inadvertently weed out your suspects by saying "suit your agenda."

Answer 20

Its a FACT that women are more emotional than men.

Go to "Howstuffworks.com" and find the article called "How women work".

Its a FACT.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/