Tom Liggett

Today, it is widely accepted idea that men and women are equals in their intellectual capacities. Any thoughts otherwise are suspect, highly criticized, and are almost always inappropriate. In recent years, however, some voices of dissent have suggested that innate differences may exist. Is there any truth to the claim that there are intellectual inequalities between the sexes?

In 2005, Harvard President Lawrence Summers posited that one reason men have dominated high-level engineering and science careers might be that men are more innately gifted in those areas — a theory that wound up getting him fired. While he did not outright and clearly state that men were smarter than women, he seemed to insinuate that men could be more naturally talented in those fields.

What if his proposal is correct? Is there a connection between male genetics and a greater aptitude in understanding complex quantitative material? How much evidence is there to back up Summers’ claim? Apparently, not much.

Dr. Evelyn Brister, RIT Professor of Ethics and a specialist in feminist philosophy, has been interested in the intellectual differences between the sexes for quite some time. She has found that studies which explore the unique intellectual capabilities of both genders have very few variations, if any. “The studies that find differences in math abilities, for instance, usually don’t take into account the extra instructional time that boys have had in math classrooms. Boys and girls are still educated differently,” said Brister. Due to this observation, conscious efforts have been made to improve teaching methods so as to not exclude the female population, efforts which have resulted in an almost equal number of men and women in chemistry, biology, and medicine.

Without any real evidence to support Summers’ claims, it therefore seems that he was either exercising extreme carelessness in his wording, or, as Brister phrased it, “demonstrat[ing] that he was not as supportive of women as men.” Regardless, it reveals common modes of thought that exist in some of our minds.

Another example that suggests an intellectual division between the sexes is the suggestion that men are better with directions (in terms of both distance estimation and compass direction), whereas women’s strengths lie in identifying landmarks and determining what is right or left. Are these studies enough to prove that the sexes have unequal — or at least distinct — types of intelligence? When asked, Brister noted that “this is one of the few intellectual differences between men and women that has some support to it.”

The problem then lies in understanding how and why these differences exist. Brister believes that we have yet to decipher whether it is due to “cultural artifact or whether it has a biological basis.” It is likely that it could exist because of the varied methods used in raising males and females. Each gender behaves uniquely and engages in a myriad of activities; therefore, it is more likely that these differences exist because of social factors rather than genetic influences.

Whether biological or social in nature, Dr. Brister has noted that curiosity has fueled much of the investigation into gender-specific intellectual types. Per Brister, “[It is difficult] to imagine that our social policies on the treatment of boys and girls or men and women will change, whatever we find. I hope that we can discover the cause [of the differences!]”