Image source: Sex differences in the Brain: Fact or Fiction? (Youtube) Biological Sex Differences in the Workplace: Reports of the End of Men are Greatly Exaggerated (As Are Claims of Women’s Continued Inequality): Common examples of perceived workplace inequality – the “glass ceiling,” the “gender gap” in compensation, and occupational segregation among others – cannot be well understood if the explanation proffered for their existence is limited exclusively to social causes such as discrimination and sexist socialization. Males and females have, on average, different sets of talents, tastes, and interests, which cause them to select somewhat different occupations and exhibit somewhat different workplace behaviors. Some of these sex differences have biological roots. Temperamental sex differences are found in competitiveness, dominance-seeking, risk-taking, and nurturance, with females tending to be more “person-oriented” and males more “thing-oriented.” The sexes also differ in a variety of cognitive traits, including various spatial, verbal, mathematical, and mechanical abilities. Although social influences can be important, these social influences operate on (and were in fact created by) sexually dimorphic minds. […] Nonetheless, men will continue to dominate the scarce positions at the top of hierarchies as long as it is necessary to devote decades of intense labor- market activity to obtain them, even if women come to predominate in middle-management positions and even if men also disproportionately occupy the bottom of hierarchies. Men will similarly continue to dominate math-intensive fields, as well as fields that expose workers to substantial physical risks. […] Despite major changes in the workplace, many favoring women, some worry about residual areas in which men seem to retain an advantage. […] When men are perceived to be doing well, however, many observers take as borderline blasphemy any suggestion that men may be more suited to certain jobs because of their natural talents; instead, blame must rest on subtle or even invisible barriers. To do otherwise is to “blame the victim.” So, does the advancement of women in the workplace represent the “end of men”? No. Men will continue to dominate in certain areas based on their talents and tastes, just as women will dominate in others. […] Explanations for sex differences in employment that are based on purely extrinsic causes provide little insight into the complexity of workplace patterns. To be sure, women are not proportionately represented at the highest corporate levels. They have, however, reached near-parity among new lawyers and doctors. Similarly, women do not earn, on average, as much as men do, but women who perform the same work and display the same workplace attachment as men do earn approximately the same as comparable men.http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2251447 (the full paper is open access) Sex Differences in Variability in Personality: A Study in Four Samples: Objective: Men vary more than women in cognitive abilities and physical attributes, and we expected that men would vary more in personality too. That this has not been found previously may reflect that (a) personality was measured by self-reports that confound target sex with informant sex, and (b) men actually vary more but accentuate personality differences less than women. Results: Higher male than female variability was found in each sample for informant reports of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Men but not women were overrepresented in both tails of the distributions of several personality traits. Conclusions: According to liability-threshold models of mental disorders, this may contribute to men’s overrepresentation in some kinds of deviant groups.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00784.x/abstracthttps://ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/_pdf/Borkenau2013SDIVI.pdf These papers affirm old truths in relation to sex differences, but to ensure the take home point is clear - whenever a society singles out individuals who are outstanding or unusual in any way, the statistical contrast between means and extremes comes to the fore: largely a result of the sexes differing in their mean abilities and interests. The screen shot above is taken from this video lecture by Margaret McCarthy, which goes in-depth about the evidence for human and non-human sex differences in behaviour and in the brain (starting at around 28:10 for humans). Previous post: Sex Differences on g and non-g Intellectual Performance Reveal Potential Sources of STEM Discrepancies Image source: Sex differences in the Brain: Fact or Fiction? (Youtube) Biological Sex Differences in the Workplace: Reports of the End of Men are Greatly Exaggerated (As Are Claims of Women’s Continued Inequality): Common examples of perceived workplace inequality – the “glass ceiling,” the “gender gap” in compensation, and occupational segregation among others – cannot be well understood if the explanation proffered for their existence is limited exclusively to social causes such as discrimination and sexist socialization. Males and females have, on average, different sets of talents, tastes, and interests, which cause them to select somewhat different occupations and exhibit somewhat different workplace behaviors. Some of these sex differences have biological roots. Temperamental sex differences are found in competitiveness, dominance-seeking, risk-taking, and nurturance, with females tending to be more “person-oriented” and males more “thing-oriented.” The sexes also differ in a variety of cognitive traits, including various spatial, verbal, mathematical, and mechanical abilities. Although social influences can be important, these social influences operate on (and were in fact created by) sexually dimorphic minds. […] Nonetheless, men will continue to dominate the scarce positions at the top of hierarchies as long as it is necessary to devote decades of intense labor- market activity to obtain them, even if women come to predominate in middle-management positions and even if men also disproportionately occupy the bottom of hierarchies. Men will similarly continue to dominate math-intensive fields, as well as fields that expose workers to substantial physical risks. […] Despite major changes in the workplace, many favoring women, some worry about residual areas in which men seem to retain an advantage. […] When men are perceived to be doing well, however, many observers take as borderline blasphemy any suggestion that men may be more suited to certain jobs because of their natural talents; instead, blame must rest on subtle or even invisible barriers. To do otherwise is to “blame the victim.” So, does the advancement of women in the workplace represent the “end of men”? No. Men will continue to dominate in certain areas based on their talents and tastes, just as women will dominate in others. […] Explanations for sex differences in employment that are based on purely extrinsic causes provide little insight into the complexity of workplace patterns. To be sure, women are not proportionately represented at the highest corporate levels. They have, however, reached near-parity among new lawyers and doctors. Similarly, women do not earn, on average, as much as men do, but women who perform the same work and display the same workplace attachment as men do earn approximately the same as comparable men.http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2251447 (the full paper is open access) Sex Differences in Variability in Personality: A Study in Four Samples: Objective: Men vary more than women in cognitive abilities and physical attributes, and we expected that men would vary more in personality too. That this has not been found previously may reflect that (a) personality was measured by self-reports that confound target sex with informant sex, and (b) men actually vary more but accentuate personality differences less than women. Results: Higher male than female variability was found in each sample for informant reports of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Men but not women were overrepresented in both tails of the distributions of several personality traits. Conclusions: According to liability-threshold models of mental disorders, this may contribute to men’s overrepresentation in some kinds of deviant groups.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00784.x/abstracthttps://ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/_pdf/Borkenau2013SDIVI.pdf These papers affirm old truths in relation to sex differences, but to ensure the take home point is clear - whenever a society singles out individuals who are outstanding or unusual in any way, the statistical contrast between means and extremes comes to the fore: largely a result of the sexes differing in their mean abilities and interests. The screen shot above is taken from this video lecture by Margaret McCarthy, which goes in-depth about the evidence for human and non-human sex differences in behaviour and in the brain (starting at around 28:10 for humans). Previous post: Sex Differences on g and non-g Intellectual Performance Reveal Potential Sources of STEM Discrepancies

Biological Sex Differences in the Workplace: Reports of the End of Men are Greatly Exaggerated (As Are Claims of Women’s Continued Inequality):

Common examples of perceived workplace inequality – the “glass ceiling,” the “gender gap” in compensation, and occupational segregation among others – cannot be well understood if the explanation proffered for their existence is limited exclusively to social causes such as discrimination and sexist socialization. Males and females have, on average, different sets of talents, tastes, and interests, which cause them to select somewhat different occupations and exhibit somewhat different workplace behaviors. Some of these sex differences have biological roots. Temperamental sex differences are found in competitiveness, dominance-seeking, risk-taking, and nurturance, with females tending to be more “person-oriented” and males more “thing-oriented.” The sexes also differ in a variety of cognitive traits, including various spatial, verbal, mathematical, and mechanical abilities. Although social influences can be important, these social influences operate on (and were in fact created by) sexually dimorphic minds.

[…] Nonetheless, men will continue to dominate the scarce positions at the top of hierarchies as long as it is necessary to devote decades of intense labor- market activity to obtain them, even if women come to predominate in middle-management positions and even if men also disproportionately occupy the bottom of hierarchies. Men will similarly continue to dominate math-intensive fields, as well as fields that expose workers to substantial physical risks.

[…] Despite major changes in the workplace, many favoring women, some worry about residual areas in which men seem to retain an advantage. […] When men are perceived to be doing well, however, many observers take as borderline blasphemy any suggestion that men may be more suited to certain jobs because of their natural talents; instead, blame must rest on subtle or even invisible barriers. To do otherwise is to “blame the victim.” So, does the advancement of women in the workplace represent the “end of men”? No. Men will continue to dominate in certain areas based on their talents and tastes, just as women will dominate in others.

[…] Explanations for sex differences in employment that are based on purely extrinsic causes provide little insight into the complexity of workplace patterns. To be sure, women are not proportionately represented at the highest corporate levels. They have, however, reached near-parity among new lawyers and doctors. Similarly, women do not earn, on average, as much as men do, but women who perform the same work and display the same workplace attachment as men do earn approximately the same as comparable men.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2251447 (the full paper is open access)

Sex Differences in Variability in Personality: A Study in Four Samples:

Objective: Men vary more than women in cognitive abilities and physical attributes, and we expected that men would vary more in personality too. That this has not been found previously may reflect that (a) personality was measured by self-reports that confound target sex with informant sex, and (b) men actually vary more but accentuate personality differences less than women.

Results: Higher male than female variability was found in each sample for informant reports of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Men but not women were overrepresented in both tails of the distributions of several personality traits.

Conclusions: According to liability-threshold models of mental disorders, this may contribute to men’s overrepresentation in some kinds of deviant groups.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00784.x/abstract
https://ppw.kuleuven.be/okp/_pdf/Borkenau2013SDIVI.pdf

These papers affirm old truths in relation to sex differences, but to ensure the take home point is clear - whenever a society singles out individuals who are outstanding or unusual in any way, the statistical contrast between means and extremes comes to the fore: largely a result of the sexes differing in their mean abilities and interests.

The screen shot above is taken from this video lecture by Margaret McCarthy, which goes in-depth about the evidence for human and non-human sex differences in behaviour and in the brain (starting at around 28:10 for humans).

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Jul. 29 2014
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  1. arkaimcity posted this