Thursday 9 August 2007

Women in the Labs

One thing I forgot to mention is that I'm a bit of an advocate of women in science. Perhaps no surprise. So I was therefore interested by this article. I love the quote about men being better at spatial abilities than women. SOME women I think. I know men who take you 3 sides of a square when you know the 4th side is so much quicker. Women have a reputation for being lousy at map reading and 3D visualisation but that doesn't mean all women are like that does it? Like, I suppose, is the theory that no man can multitask.

Discuss.

5 comments:

John said...

I thought we'd got past all this sexist nonsense. People are individuals with infinite variety in ability, aptitude and experience. All the men and women I know are good at different things. That's what makes them interesting!

I was going to make a broad sweeping comment about journalists and pseudo-science stories, but I won't.

Ruth said...

John, I so wish we had! It's not all plain sailing being a female in science but this is probably not the forum to discuss it in. Perhaps I need to set up yet another blog?! ;)

Ruth said...

Ps. It was your brother that took me 3 sides of a square!

John said...

No wonder his weekend cycling trips are so long then...

Anonymous said...

Not sure this isn't leaning to the traditional prejudices itself. The best driver I have ever been with is a woman! (How many men would admit that?) Norma was the archetypal "can't map-read" woman passenger - until she decided to practice. Now she delights in following our route when we journey together. I do think it's about breaking the "traditional" moulds, rather than abilities. Women are far more often cooks, than men are. But not chefs. Why would that be?