Science of Gender and Science

This transcript of a debate is a worthy read if you're at all interested in the whole gender inequallity in top flight science and math positions thing. One of the things which makes it a great debate (although it would more accurately be described as a long discussion of one side followed by a long discussion of the other followed by a little debate) is that the participants stay entirely on topic. Pinker and Spelke appear to be friends, so there's no ad hominem tactics. On one side is the idea that more men are better at high power math because men are better at a few specific problem solving techniques (women being better at other techniques). Those techniques techniques turn out to be the ones which geniuses often use to solve really hard problems (spacial visualization and manipulation). In addition, men have more variance in their statistical distribution. The interesting evidence here was an intelligence test taken by the entire population of Scotland. The very highest scores were like 90% men. The very lowest scores were also like 90% men. The other side is that just because men are better at a few specific techniques doesn't mean that men are better at science and math in general. There is no way to tease out the cultural bias, of men being better than women at science and math, from the data of overall perfomace (as measured by career acomplishments). Therefore, you can't conclude being better at those techniques is what makes men more sucessful in science and math. The interesting study here is that academic faculty were like 4 times more likely to hire a so-so candidate, based on the candidate's c.v., if the c.v. carried a male name (I always try and keep in mind with these kinds of studies that the funding of the researcher(s) is probably dependent on them continuing to find discrimination against women (i.e. the bias of academia towards finding discimination taints a study like this in the same way that the bias of society towards a man being better at hard science taints a study which says that being good at mental spacial manipulation leads to skill in hard science (still with me?))).