NationStates Jolt Archive


Have women become more inteligent or diligent/hard workers than men?

Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 17:02
I will be attending for the next two years the Center for Judicial Studies in my country. This is the state school that carries out the training of magistrates (judges and public prosecutors). Just today were published on the internet the names of the 140 applicants who were aproved (out of 2000 candidates). What i noticed is that in my particular subdivision there are 14 students, and just three of them are men. Mor or less the same ratio exists in the other seven groups. This reminds me of the Law school i attended, where men were clearly a minority. To achieve a position in the Center for Judicial Studies, one must, first, get at least a grade equal to 50% in three written tests, and next get at least 50% in four oral tests. Its quite challenging, and the overwhelming majority of sucessful applicants were women. When i practiced law, most of my coleages were also women. So, do you think that women are becoming much more inteligent and hard-working than men? Or is there simply some activities (the Law, for instance) to which women are simply better prepared due to their personality traits? Some do claim that in more "technic areas" (engineering, for one) men have naturally the upper hand. Should we simply give in to work specialization according to gender? Or men are fast becoming a endangered species in the work place?
Glamorgane
08-09-2005, 17:09
I will be attending for the next two years the Center for Judicial Studies in my country. This is the state school that carries out the training of magistrates (judges and public prosecutors). Just today were published on the internet the names of the 140 applicants who were aproved (out of 2000 candidates). What i noticed is that in my particular subdivision there are 14 students, and just three of them are men. Mor or less the same ratio exists in the other seven groups. This reminds me of the Law school i attended, where men were clearly a minority. To achieve a position in the Center for Judicial Studies, one must, first, get at least a grade equal to 50% in three written tests, and next get at least 50% in four oral tests. Its quite challenging, and the overwhelming majority of sucessful applicants were women. When i practiced law, most of my coleages were also women. So, do you think that women are becoming much more inteligent and hard-working than men? Or is there simply some activities (the Law, for instance) to which women are simply better prepared due to their personality traits? Some do claim that in more "technic areas" (engineering, for one) men have naturally the upper hand. Should we simply give in to work specialization according to gender? Or men are fast becoming a endangered species in the work place?

Maybe women are better suited to law.

After all, they all have plenty of practice with slavishly remembering the misdeeds of their boyfriends/husbands. Not such a long step. hehehe
GOLDDIRK
08-09-2005, 17:18
Its more likely who ever is reviewing the applicants in just want more WOMEN! Wouldnt you? :)
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 17:35
Its more likely who ever is reviewing the applicants in just want more WOMEN! Wouldnt you? :)
well, i wouldnt say thats the reason...the jurors, either in the written tests or the oral ones, are a pretty mixed bunch...
Dakini
08-09-2005, 17:37
I'm studying physics and I'm one of the few girls in most of my classes...
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 17:38
I'm studying physics and I'm one of the few girls in most of my classes...
well, that would in some way support the work specialization according to genre theory...
Kroisistan
08-09-2005, 17:41
No, women aren't becoming smarter than men, or more diligent. Women are in general better at the humanities, whereas men are better at science and math; if research data(class ratios, test scores, etc.) is to be taken at face value.

Of course there exist exceptions, like myself, whom while male hates math and rocks at the humanities.
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 17:47
No, women aren't becoming smarter than men, or more diligent. Women are in general better at the humanities, whereas men are better at science and math; if research data(class ratios, test scores, etc.) is to be taken at face value.

Of course there exist exceptions, like myself, whom while male hates math and rocks at the humanities.
Same hear.
Dakini
08-09-2005, 17:50
No, women aren't becoming smarter than men, or more diligent. Women are in general better at the humanities, whereas men are better at science and math; if research data(class ratios, test scores, etc.) is to be taken at face value.

Of course there exist exceptions, like myself, whom while male hates math and rocks at the humanities.
It depends on the science. In biology and chemistry, there are more women than men. Even math has a more even male to female ratio.
Korarchaeota
08-09-2005, 17:59
No, women aren't becoming smarter than men, or more diligent. Women are in general better at the humanities, whereas men are better at science and math; if research data(class ratios, test scores, etc.) is to be taken at face value.


But is that beacuse of some inherent way the female or male brain is wired, that one is better than the other, or because of teaching techniques used for those subjects that favor the way female or male brains are wired, or is it beacuse we've been socially cultured to perform, on the average, differently? Makes you wonder....
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:00
Hum...it gets one thinking that maybe affirmative action in Humanities and social sciences could be a good idea...
Messerach
08-09-2005, 18:01
I think the different proportions across disciplines is more to do with what people are interested in studying than ability. Differences between the abilities of males and females are pretty small, I'd doubt they really affect what people choose to become qualified in. Every subject has a stereotypical image, which is why few females are interested in being physicists but they are usually the majority in humanities.
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:06
Oh, forgot ot say in the beginning, i´m a man.
Bersabia
08-09-2005, 18:06
i think its just because women now feel more free to go after a career they want. still even though most people getting in are women, the high powered jobs go to men. fact.
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:09
i think its just because women now feel more free to go after a career they want. still even though most people getting in are women, the high powered jobs go to men. fact.
well, i wouldnt necessarily say that...for instance, in the case i reported at the start of the thread, many of my female coleages will become judges...isnt that a high powered job?
Dakini
08-09-2005, 18:09
I don't think it hurts that there's still a fair bit of social conditioning involved. If a guy's a nerd, it's not too terrible, but if a girl's a nerd then you get social pariah status. Physics and math are probably the worst subjects for nerd stereotypes...

Hell, I don't know why boys shouldn't be succeeding more in school, they've done studies where when an equal number of boys and girls raise their hands to answer questions, the teachers will more often choose the boys, even if it's a female teacher. Though they also show that boys tend to be better at hands on stuff (especially in early years) and don't sit still as well... which could be due to parental factors, i.e. parents are more likely to disipline girls for acting unruly than boys. I don't really know enough about early childhood education though...

Now, I have to get going for class.
Bersabia
08-09-2005, 18:12
the majority is still men. it is true that women, espeacially good looking ones, have to prove themselves harder to get to the same position as a man
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:15
the majority is still men. it is true that women, espeacially good looking ones, have to prove themselves harder to get to the same position as a man
You´d be surprised by the ratio women/men in the lower courts in Portugal...
Why do you thing good-looking women have to work harder to get the same position as a man?
Bersabia
08-09-2005, 18:19
coz good looking women get stereotyped
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:24
coz good looking women get stereotyped
Dont we all?
Anarchy and Herblore
08-09-2005, 18:34
Women (don't mean to generalise, of course there are always exceptions) are far better judges of character on the whole, to my experience. Then because of that they better judge what should be done in situations that involve people's feelings and rights.

However men find disassociating themselves from a thing very easy, hence why pure logical processes like physics of engineering are better suited to a mind that doesn't anthropomorphisize inanitmate objects.

But in the end each person takes their own place on the gender spectrum and what traits/strengths a person has will hopefully be used to their full extent. So any aim to segregate men and women into specialist skills would be unfair to both sides.
Sergio the First
08-09-2005, 18:41
Women (don't mean to generalise, of course there are always exceptions) are far better judges of character on the whole, to my experience. Then because of that they better judge what should be done in situations that involve people's feelings and rights.

However men find disassociating themselves from a thing very easy, hence why pure logical processes like physics of engineering are better suited to a mind that doesn't anthropomorphisize inanitmate objects.

But in the end each person takes their own place on the gender spectrum and what traits/strengths a person has will hopefully be used to their full extent. So any aim to segregate men and women into specialist skills would be unfair to both sides.
But even if society doesn´t make such specialization a law of the land, doesn´t social dynamics tell us that such a state of affairs is inevitable?
The Force Majeure II
08-09-2005, 19:05
Women (don't mean to generalise, of course there are always exceptions) are far better judges of character on the whole, to my experience. Then because of that they better judge what should be done in situations that involve people's feelings and rights.

However men find disassociating themselves from a thing very easy, hence why pure logical processes like physics of engineering are better suited to a mind that doesn't anthropomorphisize inanitmate objects.

But in the end each person takes their own place on the gender spectrum and what traits/strengths a person has will hopefully be used to their full extent. So any aim to segregate men and women into specialist skills would be unfair to both sides.


I don't want a judge to let his/her feelings interfere with the proper execution of laws. Judges should disassociate themselves from the people involved in a case.

On another note, I had several classes in grad school where there were no women at all. Talk about miserable.
Zincite
08-09-2005, 19:49
Well,

I'm female.
I am going into my sophomore year of high school and Precalculus.
I scored 20 points above the "exceeds" benchmark in math on a scoring scale of 150-300.
I think science is the subject most intrinsically interesting, before you account for the teacher.
It has taken several years for me to be convinced that taking art history is a good idea.
I am stereotypically masculine in few if any other areas of life.

I don't think the female brain is wired any particular way.
Blauschild
08-09-2005, 20:18
Well,

I'm female.
I am going into my sophomore year of high school and Precalculus.
I scored 20 points above the "exceeds" benchmark in math on a scoring scale of 150-300.
I think science is the subject most intrinsically interesting, before you account for the teacher.
It has taken several years for me to be convinced that taking art history is a good idea.
I am stereotypically masculine in few if any other areas of life.

I don't think the female brain is wired any particular way.
And yet you don't even think for a moment that personal experience is worthless given that is very easy for you to be the aberration and not the norm? Nope, of course not.

As far as more intelligent, no they're not. Men have more intelligence, and more stupidity as a gender. We vary far more from individual to individual. Which is why men as a gender span a greater range of intelligence than women. As far as hard working... eh. Women end up suffering in their careers and creating their pay gap because businesses report that women as a whole won't work the same hours as most men and that they take 'time off for themselves to think' (meaning a 1+ year vacation of 'me time') and switch careers far more. So frankly they end up being less diligent and hardworking as whole.
Sergio the First
09-09-2005, 10:24
And yet you don't even think for a moment that personal experience is worthless given that is very easy for you to be the aberration and not the norm? Nope, of course not.

As far as more intelligent, no they're not. Men have more intelligence, and more stupidity as a gender. We vary far more from individual to individual. Which is why men as a gender span a greater range of intelligence than women. As far as hard working... eh. Women end up suffering in their careers and creating their pay gap because businesses report that women as a whole won't work the same hours as most men and that they take 'time off for themselves to think' (meaning a 1+ year vacation of 'me time') and switch careers far more. So frankly they end up being less diligent and hardworking as whole.
I wouldnt know...still, a carrer woman has always to juggle much different demands...long work hours and still paly her role in the family