Comments on: Is Culture Behind Men's Better Spatial Reasoning?

By: victorian79

victorian79 — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:10:28 +0000

I think that this is a socialization problem rather than just a difference in potential. As a society we treat girls and boys different and it shows when you walk into a store and see toy sections marked by gender. In the Girl’s section there are toy vacuums and kitchens and in the Boy’s section there are building materials and constructions sets. I find these presumed preferences extremely offensive and that they are outdated for the way we raise our children now. This is just one example, but it shows a marked difference in how society views the socializing and education of girls versus boys.

By: LadyCom

LadyCom — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:09:29 +0000

I believe there could be a physiological dimension to spatial ability, but it would be short-sighted to deny that environments, media, education and social relations (culture) encourage and augment or hinder and diminish these abilities across the board in men and women. Gender is by no means a universal category. Many of the women I know are exemplary spatial reasoners and thinkers, working in professions like architecture and engineering. I also know more than a few men who prefer to work through problems linguistically rather than spatially reason.

By: LADY SCIENTIST

LADY SCIENTIST — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:29:47 +0000

I always find these articles interesting. I am a female scientist that had to fight for right to study what I was interested in. I can believe that there is a genetic component that promotes spatial ability but not necessarily a male connection. In my family of 6 siblings the 3 girls have the enhanced spatial ability with the associated strong math skills. The 3 boys have stronger art, language and mechanical skills. My daughter is also gifted in math along with my great niece.

From my experience of growing up and working in a “man’s” world most women that are not very strong minded could easily be persueded that they should not use their abilities and end up with mental blocks and other issues. Cultural training is a very strong demotivating factor in a persons use of their innate abilities.

By: Idlewild

Idlewild — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:47:19 +0000

I wonder if this study would be different if it was done with matri and patri lineal cultures in America. For example, something male dominated, like Hutterites, and something female dominated, like Wiccans or nuns. While the Khasi might be fond of female leaders, the general culture of India isn’t very equal for women in matters of marriage, employment, or religion. To truly see how culture effects spatial reasoning, it would be better to do this study in a country with higher standards of equality.

By: cassandra

cassandra — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:36:04 +0000

For quite some time, the theory that gender differences exist for spatial reasoning has been on the precipice of being totally debunked (many would say it has already been debunked, and solidly for that matter). A quick google search or Wikipedia will take you to many studies already published. It is difficult to find groups of people who are so similar and differentiate only in terms of patrilineal/matrilineal culture, however. That was why testing these otherwise similar groups was so exciting for researchers, it isolates cultural differences in a way that is difficult to do in the modern world.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:06:05 +0000

“What does make a difference is having an educational system that allows each individual to learn in the way that best fits their cognitive profile and builds on their strengths.” Is a very wise comment. What would be unfortunate is for studies to pigeon hole groups of people by defining how people do and don’t think which in turn is ultimately used by beaurocrats to define what the classrooms or workplace should look like. Just because it’s politically correct, it’s not really beneficial to say that men and women both carry the same potential for spacial reasoning without solid proof because it implies that men and women without strengths in spatial reasoning are at a deficit. It’s the opposite side of the coin that is conerning. We need to get more out of our communal intelligence by everyone mining their own strengths, whatever the may be, why ever they may be. Beyond that, I’d be surprised if the characteristic of spatial reasoning isn’t more predominant for men than women. And I would be surprised if it isn’t biologically based.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:22:39 +0000

Whether there are overall gender differences or not in any skill, the majority of women and men will be in the parts of their gender determined bell curves that over lap. In other words, for any individual these trends do not mean a thing. What does make a difference is having an educational system that allows each individual to learn in the way that best fits their cognitive profile and builds on their strengths.

By: Grey

Grey — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:52:01 +0000

What this study suggests is that on that bell curve, if given equal opportunity and encouragement, the genders will score about the same. And that the score disparity between the genders in the U.S. (perceived in our culture to be the result of a genetic gender difference) is not due to a genetic difference at all but is due to a learned difference. There are differences in men and women. Spatial reasoning does not appear to be one of them.

By: CK

CK — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 19:41:10 +0000

“Research shows that fewer than 16 percent of tenure-track positions in many math-intensive fields are held by women (pdf).”

Please note that this is not correct.

First, you have not accurately quoted the article to which you have linked. That article refers to “the top 100 US universities.”

Second, the article itself has not accurately quoted from its source. Details about this are here: http://mathedck.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/statistics-on-women-in-stem/

The Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences survey found that in PhD-granting mathematics departments, women were 24% of tenure-track mathematics faculty in fall 2005.

In MA-granting mathematics departments, women were 33% of of tenure-track mathematics faculty in fall 2005.

In BA-granting mathematics departments, women were 28% of tenure-track mathematics faculty in fall 2005.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:16:59 +0000

Ok, taking it from a different angle. Although gender neutrality and equity is important in our society, and I support that, it cannot be ignored that there are physiological differences between the male and female brains. How this comes to be is not known to me, perhaps some genetic and hormonal influences added to the environmental (cultural) affects during key developmental periods. The danger with fighting this political gender equity battle in biology is that it will result in educational programs geared toward helping people improve their deficits while neglecting the talented that should be honing their competencies.

In general we should want the best cook to learn to cook better, the best mathematician to raise to the next level, and the best surgeon to become even better. In other words, I don’t want the best surgeon wasting their time becoming and ok mathematician or an acceptable cook. (don’t over analyze the choice of occupations, I have friends of all three).

It becomes very philosophical amounting to the difference between knack and skill. And disconcerting that we should use bias to try and make every class room, office, lab, etc, have a representative from every politically motivated category we can come up with. People will find their strengths are apparent, they do not need to be ‘discovered’.