Netherlands - Women in science are missing out on dozens of millions of euros

[Luther Blissett]

Ah, OK, thanks for clarifying. I took mentally different to mean intelligence, where you meant it to mean interests. I don't want to prolong a fairly pointless argument. I'll just suggest that this difference may be as much cultural as biological. Let's agree to differ and leave it at that.

I'm wondering what the differences are biologically in the former Soviet bloc, that mean that there is gender parity there? Why are women in Portugal so biologically different to those in Spain?

I think there is a tendancy to look at the top 20% of men who are merchants, kings, politicians and just assume that men had it great. When in reality the other ~80% also had a real shit time, working in factories 12hrs a day with no sun light, doing dangerous jobs like mining or fishing, and being forced to fight wars. If this was truely pariarchal, then why didn't they force their women to do these jobs?

It's quite funny, but you have just described what a patriarchy is.

In a patriarchy, the men at the top are the most important, the women are useful to them as means to an end, and the lower ranked males are disposable. The patriarchs don't want a giant surplus of men around to challenge them for status. They want the lower ranked males around only so long as they are of use in maintaining their privileges. This is understood and discussed by most feminists! Feminists are constantly pointing out that patriarchy hurts men as well as women!

As for minor things like the gender of sporting commentators, what sports fans most value in a commentator is somebody who actually describes what is going on! I don't know what sports you watch, but fans 'liking' the current male commentators is a rare thing in my social circles. Forums and dedicated papers are full of complaints and ways to avoid having to hear them.

 

[TiredSam]

There have been a couple of reports to moderation about this thread, which has very little to do with ME. It will be locked for further comments pending moderation.

 

[TiredSam]

1. The subject of this thread and the OP is an article about gender inequality in university professorships / the under-representation of women in science. This is an acceptable subject to raise in the "Health News and Research unrelated to ME/CFS" forum.

2. From post 2 onwards the discussion has been whether inequality / discrimination has an evolutionary / biological justification, with reference to many areas of life other than university professorships or scientific research. This can be distinguished from the thread's original subject, and is no longer "Health News and Research unrelated to ME/CFS".

3. Just about every post from post 2 onwards is "off-topic".

4. The thread will be re-opened for those who would like to discuss the original article. Any further off-topic posts will be deleted, and if there are persistent off-topic posts the thread will be permanently locked.

5. Your moderation team would like to wish you a pleasant start to the week.