Today’s ABP (Ananda Bazar Patrika) has a controversial news-item – men are more intelligent than women. I’ve traced the research works the news-item refers. One is a detail study by Prof. J Philippe Rushton, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada based on the results of Scholastic Assessment Test or SAT. The other is a BBC news report that talks of a study to be published later this year in the British Journal of Psychology, which says that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests.
In either case, the findings are unequivocal in saying that men indeed hold more intelligence than women. Skeptics may argue that the findings will not stand to scrutiny because they look like a general assessment and are not specific as to how and where lies the mismatch. However, since both are scientific analyses without any bias on either side, perhaps we’ve to agree to the findings, even if with a pinch of salt.
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Taking the argument further, I’ve some observations culled from everyday experience. I feel men are more adventurous in the sense that that they do not mind and are not afraid of exploring uncharted paths, often at the expense of fame, prestige and immediate gain. The uncertainty behind a closed door does not deter a man from finding out what lays beyond. If it means walking alone, so be it.
Women, on the other hand, tend to prefer known environment. On a set piece of work, women nearly always perform better than men. They are focused, able to understand issues better and generally do their work flawlessly. To give an example, a woman stock market analyst may be very good at tracking price movements, but perhaps she will shy off if asked to invest her own money on the stocks she herself thinks are good bet.
As we know, unless the unknown is knocked over and conquered, it will forever remain just that – ‘unknown’. Men can risk everything to conquer the unknown, women will not. This is perhaps one reason why there are more men Nobel laureates than women. The society needs both, so in the end, notwithstanding angry ripostes from ultra-feminists that men are only large storage of sperms and nothing else, their being more brainy is no more than just another fact of life.
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