Comment Re:could be fems average better at groups, men one (Score 1) 219
I wonder.
I read a study (that I can't find online) that compared sole owners of small businesses by gender, showing the standard male advantage in terms of profits and such, and then subdivided by motivations. One of the differences - cultural origin or not - was that men valued financial success greater than women, who preferred things such as flexible work hours, family priorities, and so on.
The surprise was that within these subdivisions, women generally outperformed men. Those who were most motivated by happiness - women were more happy. Those who wanted flexibility - women provided more flexibility. Most strikingly, for those who had financial success - women outperformed the men.
In a culture where we have a gender wage gap, it's hard to claim that women are culturally selected for when it comes to financial success, yet they beat the men. It could be application of cultural norms resulting in better communication, resulting in better success in any endeavors relying on interpersonal interaction, but along the backdrop of higher success rates for college, higher rates of advancement in management, and mirrored trends in other non-repressive countries, it forms part of a larger pattern that seems to strongly suggest that these are genetic differences, and that they have a significant impact.
Besides, we know from studying other primates that there are behavioral differences in genders, there's no reason to expect that we wouldn't have the same proclivities.
What's more interesting to me is that we're well into the transition between societies where stereotypical male traits (aggression, etc) are advantageous, and into one where other traits we could call stereotypically female (such as ability to communicate or emphasize) are becoming key. Perhaps we'll see western society flip these norms in the next 100 years or so? Let's just hope we don't end up wearing silly outfits like they did on Angel One (ST:TNG reference).