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No, I don't think feminism implies that feminists have to show women are the same as men in every way. It's perfectly feminist to say that women deserve to be j

by zasz 16y ago

No, I don't think feminism implies that feminists have to show women are the same as men in every way. It's perfectly feminist to say that women deserve to be judged as individuals on their own merits, as men are. I'm sure there's no feminist who would disagree that women are physically weaker, but they don't need to concoct studies asserting that women are physically equal to men just so they can advocate for suffrage and property rights. My understanding that the claim women are totally equal to men is that they are equal in some moral sense, which should be disconnected from natural ability anyway. I suppose if women were empirically shown to be twenty times dumber than men, and that women capable of learning to read and write were as rare as Einstein, then feminism really has no case to stand on and women's suffrage would be ludicrous, but the average woman is as smart as the average man, and that's sufficient to give men and women equal moral standing. So I don't see why feminism would fall over if it was shown that fewer women were ever going to win a Fields Medal. Unusual cases like that don't matter much for day to day morality.

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>I suppose if women were empirically shown to be twenty times dumber than men, and that women capable of learning to read and write were as rare as Einstein, then feminism really has no case to stand on and women's suffrage would be ludicrous, but the average woman is as smart as the average man, and that's sufficient to give men and women equal moral standing. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_study_claims_men_have_higher_average_I.Q._than_women http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_study_claims_men_have_higher_..., states: "In a study accepted for publication by the British Journal of Psychology, Dr. Paul Irwing (Manchester Business School, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology) and Prof. Richard Lynn (University of Ulster, Professor Emeritus) conclude that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests. The study also found that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees. When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman." But also notes that: "Several subtle points popularized by the Pinker vs. Spelke debate are relevant to the Irwing & Lynn study. First, females benefit significantly from single sex education, but single sex education has little impact upon males. As a consequence, the Irwing & Lynn study can not lay claim to a biological difference in intelligence, unless it restricts itself to women attending all girls schools. Secondly, the process of natural selection leads males of any species to have more variance in most traits. As a result, Stephen Pinker suggests that one should find "more geniuses and more idiots" among human males (see Pinker slide 41). As a consequence, any omission of people at the lower end of the IQ spectrum would bias the average male IQ upward, relative to the average female IQ ."

by zasz 16y ago

pbhjpbhj 16y ago

>I suppose if women were empirically shown to be twenty times dumber than men, and that women capable of learning to read and write were as rare as Einstein, then feminism really has no case to stand on and women's suffrage would be ludicrous, but the average woman is as smart as the average man, and that's sufficient to give men and women equal moral standing. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_study_claims_men_have_higher_average_I.Q._than_women http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_study_claims_men_have_higher_..., states: "In a study accepted for publication by the British Journal of Psychology, Dr. Paul Irwing (Manchester Business School, Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology) and Prof. Richard Lynn (University of Ulster, Professor Emeritus) conclude that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests. The study also found that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees. When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman." But also notes that: "Several subtle points popularized by the Pinker vs. Spelke debate are relevant to the Irwing & Lynn study. First, females benefit significantly from single sex education, but single sex education has little impact upon males. As a consequence, the Irwing & Lynn study can not lay claim to a biological difference in intelligence, unless it restricts itself to women attending all girls schools. Secondly, the process of natural selection leads males of any species to have more variance in most traits. As a result, Stephen Pinker suggests that one should find "more geniuses and more idiots" among human males (see Pinker slide 41). As a consequence, any omission of people at the lower end of the IQ spectrum would bias the average male IQ upward, relative to the average female IQ ."