Prejudice runs in both directions.
Despite all the blame being cast on PC, lack of reality, some liberal sense of equality, feminist politics, etc., this is all about prejudice, IMO. The median man may be better at math than the median woman and that may be a function of biology, but what happens when that idea is put forward is a loss of nuance about medians. What comes out of it is that women can't do math. Or women are people people. Or that women don't like to be nerds.
The fact is that there are lots and lots of women who are every bit as good in math as the best men, who ignore the interpersonal, and/or go about in flat shoes the female equivalent of the pocket protector. Conversely there are lots and lots of men who are hopeless in math and/or nurturing, pocket protector or not. When the non-nuanced take up the stereotype, these math-competitive women experience discrimination. After all, everyone knows that women can't do math.
It seems to me that, if society can't handle the nuance of reality, the better choice for society between unrealities is that men and women are identical, even though we know they aren't. That intentional ignorance does less damage than bigotry.
I say that as a woman who has always been "good at math." |
