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Every time I hear someone mention behavioral differences due to the biological differences between men and women, my response (that I'm stealing from my profess

Every time I hear someone mention behavioral differences due to the biological differences between men and women, my response (that I'm stealing from my professor) is that the differences amongst men and women outweigh the differences between men and women. Applied to this topic, that means that you're going to find people that prefer these different learning styles on both sides of the gender gap. Also, I feel like wanting to increase the human aspect of programming isn't just a girl thing. The people whom I know that best fit the solitary hacker type love sharing their work, offering advice, and collaborating on projects with friends and peers.

skinnymuch 9y ago
> Every time I hear someone mention behavioral differences due to the biological differences between men and women, my response (that I'm stealing from my professor) is that the differences amongst men and women outweigh the differences between men and women. Applied to this topic, that means that you're going to find people that prefer these different learning styles on both sides of the gender gap. That's a great way of describing learning. I love your professor's quote. Definitely going to use it :P
darawk 9y ago
> Every time I hear someone mention behavioral differences due to the biological differences between men and women, my response (that I'm stealing from my professor) is that the differences amongst men and women outweigh the differences between men and women. Applied to this topic, that means that you're going to find people that prefer these different learning styles on both sides of the gender gap. That's a nice sentiment, but it's not actually very true. With regard to this particular article, I think there are plenty of women who can thrive in the environment she described. I know some of them. So, I don't think this particular situation is caused by divergent information processing between men and women. That being said, information processing is a multi-dimensional thing. The axes of difference between men and women may be different than the axes of variance among men and women. To say that "the differences among men and women outweigh the differences between men and women" is to ignore the fact that they may not be the same differences we're talking about. This is a thorny question, because it obviously implies that men are better at some things and women are better at other things. This can reinforce biases, and entrench or seem to justify unfair treatment. But the fact that an issue may be fraught does not change the truth-value of its propositions.
- slavik81 9y ago
  > That's a nice sentiment, but it's not actually very true. It's literally textbook science. Like, if you pick up a university psychology textbook on sex and gender, you will probably find that statement in it. It's based on evidence, not sentiment. That pattern is exactly what you see when you look at graphs showing the distribution of results broken down by gender on a whole bunch of physical and psychological tests.
  - darawk 9y ago
    Yes, of course the variance of the distributions is greater than the mean difference. That is trivial. But it ignores the actual point. Mean population differences have practical population-level effects. The fact that internal variance exceeds the mean difference is inconsequential and meaningless.

skinnymuch 9y ago

darawk 9y ago

> Every time I hear someone mention behavioral differences due to the biological differences between men and women, my response (that I'm stealing from my professor) is that the differences amongst men and women outweigh the differences between men and women. Applied to this topic, that means that you're going to find people that prefer these different learning styles on both sides of the gender gap. That's a nice sentiment, but it's not actually very true. With regard to this particular article, I think there are plenty of women who can thrive in the environment she described. I know some of them. So, I don't think this particular situation is caused by divergent information processing between men and women. That being said, information processing is a multi-dimensional thing. The axes of difference between men and women may be different than the axes of variance among men and women. To say that "the differences among men and women outweigh the differences between men and women" is to ignore the fact that they may not be the same differences we're talking about. This is a thorny question, because it obviously implies that men are better at some things and women are better at other things. This can reinforce biases, and entrench or seem to justify unfair treatment. But the fact that an issue may be fraught does not change the truth-value of its propositions.

slavik81 9y ago
> That's a nice sentiment, but it's not actually very true. It's literally textbook science. Like, if you pick up a university psychology textbook on sex and gender, you will probably find that statement in it. It's based on evidence, not sentiment. That pattern is exactly what you see when you look at graphs showing the distribution of results broken down by gender on a whole bunch of physical and psychological tests.
- darawk 9y ago
  Yes, of course the variance of the distributions is greater than the mean difference. That is trivial. But it ignores the actual point. Mean population differences have practical population-level effects. The fact that internal variance exceeds the mean difference is inconsequential and meaningless.