An interesting point to the people who are so confident that women are smarter...?

Question

I will give you this one thing- I will say that on the whole, women are slightly more intelligent than the average man. I will accept this as a fact, because it is one. But it goes much deeper than that- let me explain. If Intelligence were to be rated on a scale of one to ten (I know IQ can be used, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll use the scale), where one is Profound Mental Retardation and a ten is a Genius, and five is average, most women would be about a 5.5 to a 6. Most men would be a 4.5-5. The average woman is a bit more capable with raw mental capacity. Lets narrow it down. Lets look at the overall spectrum. You will find many more men down near the one's and two's than you will women. One-Three will be almost exclusively men, yes. But people never seem to realize that 9-10 are almost exclusively male. Great Geniuses are almost always men. Most very brilliant people are men. There are many brilliant women too, but the world of exceptional intelligence is dominated by men.

As is the world of incredible stupidity. Neither one is better than the other, they are just different. And it is a good thing it is that way too. Your thoughts on this?

My date is used for illustration- it isn't based on actual data. It is, more or less, accurate though.

A fair point that woman haven't had that opportunity, but I believe that to be more rhetorical of a counter than a legitimate one.

And even today when women have the same rights...and don't start with this 'they don't' BS- they do. They can go to college and all of that and get educations just like a man- even today, it is still dominated by men.

Already you are above a six in my eyes. I simply still believe that the great brilliance of humanity is something that resides in the domain of men. And you forget that in history women have broken through- Geniuses are inspired, and do what they must. They would have found a way- they didn't. Think of Mary Shelley. She was brilliant- and she found a way. She listened to her father and others discuss politics and the like and educated herself. I think women will become much more prominant in the intellectual field, but that ultimately it will always be dominated by men.

And as far as the 'off balanced ration' goes...how does my little sister, who I am teaching to read and do arithmetic (shes five) fair any worse than a boy in her class? There are cases, yes, but nothing more.

Many people point to statistics like yours and conclude that women all want to be senators and CEOs of Fortune Five Hundred companies. Some do, but it is innate of most women to strive for other things. We have, what, 11 female senators? Pelosi is our first female speaker. They can, they just are vastly outnumbered by men who seek politics.

You have argued your point well- I accept it as legitimate, but still feel that the tip of the spear is the man over the woman.

GOD...It never ceases to amaze me, the stupidity of the old 'without women there would be no babies' argument. Without men there would be no babies either! And as for people who suggest we could all survive with one man impregnating every single woman on the Earth, yeah, that may work for a while, but the mental retardation that would result from everyone sharing half of their genetics with every single other person would kinda screw that one over. So that whole women and babies thing is not legit. At all.

But, I would like to agree with your point, that it is a very beautiful thing that women can carry within them a living (yes, living) human being. I don't particularly like the way you use that as a weapon though. Men carry what enables you to have that. BOTH are beautiful.

Answer 1

I accept this as a very valid point and I do not believe men to be smarter than women or vice versa. But lets say this, Yes, 9-10 is exclusively male, but you are judging on information collected in what, the last, say 2000 years? Yes there are many more records of Male geniuses but it has only be for the last, say 100-150 years that women have been allowed to attend schools, publish works, speak in public. So, if male geniuses out number females 10 to 1 over the past 2000 years, whose to say that there were 9 females not given their chance to prove their intellect?

Women do have the same rights and education facilities that men have now, but we are making up for 1850 years of an off balanced ration. And even now, what occupations do we see women taking today? From the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Rank Occupation Total employed
1. Secretaries and administrative assistants 2,570,000
2. Elementary and middle-school teachers 1,772,000
3. Registered nurses 1,651,000
4. Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides 1,113,000
5. Cashiers 1,016,000
6. First-line supervisors/managers of office and administrative support 1,001,000
7. First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers 985,000
8. Customer service representatives 967,000
9. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks 916,000
10. Accountants and auditors 842,000

How many retail workers are given the opportunity to strive for the nobel peace prize? Sexual equality is still a problem and still hampers the ability of our sex to elevate to elite intellegence.

If you are going to judge my answer as rhetorical and not a valid point, then perhaps I'll just accept my six and call it a night.

Mary Shelly was encouraged by her husband and other men in her life to create and to be an intellectual. Madame Curie was encouraged and partnered with her husband. Viriginia Woolf lived in her father's shadow, but was published in great majority by her husband. Perhaps if men would stop insiting that they be the dominant party (as if there aren't enough power struggles in the world) and would encourage women, we'd see the statistics even out.

This was fun, lets do it again some time ;)

Answer 2

I'd just like to point out this: the person with the highest IQ in the world is a woman. And I'd also like to point out that the main reason why there are so many more 'brilliant' men than women in history is probably just because far more men had a proper education and were encouraged to have a life and do brilliant things. In future years, don't you think this may even out? And I'm very skeptical of the means by which people are judged to be on a certain level of that scale. I wouldn't say that women are, on average, any more (or less) intelligent than men.

Answer 3

The women I've heard say that usually have a face that would stop a train and/or a chip on their shoulder the size of Montana. So I was going to say something sarcastic, but after reading your entire question I think you're probably sincere. So the answer is: No. Men are not intimidated by beautiful smart women. I know, because I married one. Beautiful RICH women are a different matter entirely. Assuming I were still on the market, I know that Jessica Alba or Angelina Jolie would not for a moment consider going out with me, because I don't have enough to offer them, so I wouldn't even try. So in that sense, I guess you could say I was "intimidated" by them.

Answer 4

Yes, I have heard this too and does appear to be very logical. Dr Summers suggested that generally men appear at the extreme ends of the spectrum, and women at the mean. Obviously, there are women at both ends of the spectrum, but men appear to greatly outnumber them. That also would imply that more women are of average intelligence than men, like you said.

An IQ of 150 would be considered that of a genius. Apparently there is 1 woman for every 5 men with this number. And I would assume that it would work backwards for an IQ of say 50, which is considered that of mental retardation, in that there would be 1 woman for every 5 men also.

As the IQ approaches the mean, the gap in IQ between men and women closes, with very little difference either way for an IQ of between 90 and 110, which is considered average.

HTH : )

Answer 5

Let's see, your logic is:
1) Almost "all" "great" geniuses have been men
2) Most "very" brilliant people have been men
3) There are many brilliant women, but since number 1 and 2 are true (according to your thinking), most people with exceptional intelligence is dominated by men.

1a) Who is defining what a genius is? Women's values tend to be different than men's-look at the United States voting patterns and voter exit surveys. What you and others value and consider a genius, might not be as important to others, such as, women.

1b) For quite a long period of time, girls and women have not had access to an education or leisure time to explore intellectual pursuits (such as the ability to read and write), and some still do not. So women didn't have a lot of opportunities to explore the intellect they had, nor did they have the opportunity to record it.

Therefore, the primary people being educated and writing about intellectual and artistic discoveries have been....men. I'm not surprised that there have been few if any female "geniuses" recorded. That doesn't mean that they didn't exist, it just means that whatever women discovered or accomplished was not valued or recorded or given credit to women...by men.

2a) Again, what is "brilliant"? IQ tests are still being debated on whether they are effective or fair, since guess who has written most of them? Granted some have been updated, but how biased are they? Again, who decides what makes up our IQ or what brilliance is? Today, many people disagree on whether new products or ideas are brilliant or not, regardless of who suggests them.

2b) If you are brilliant, do you have a responsibility for the results of your discoveries? What if you are brilliant, but create horrible things? Even brilliant people have admitted that they regret exploring some of their ideas, and actually think they have done tremendous harm to the world because of their ideas. Many of the people who worked on creating bombs have since regretted that they had ever explored the concept.

3a) I agree that some men say that most men are geniuses and that many men are brilliant. But I don't agree that most women and some men would say that most men are geniuses. I see many women today, and throughout history, who I think have/are so ahead of their time, but have/are completely ignored by men, and by some women.

3b) I think there are have been and are many brilliant men and women, who have very different talents and abilities. I think that more men will be recognized for their efforts, because men in positions of authority value their ideas. I think some brilliant women's ideas will be recognized because they are more acceptable to men, or somehow, these women will manage to "sell" their ideas, in spite of how "unusual" these ideas are.

3c) Until 1970, only 25% of American women received a college degree. Even though women's numbers in colleges have dramatically increased, look at how many generations of American women have had little access to higher education, or any education for that matter. Granted, men have had difficulties getting an education as well, but often if a choice had to be made, who did a family send to school?

3d) How many decision makers have been or are women in our country in business, education, science, music, etc? If women are not valued as leaders, who will listen to their (brilliant) ideas? Who will listen to the women geniuses?

Answer 6

"I will accept this as a fact, because it is one."

Sheesh, that's logical.

There's no way to rate "intelligence." It's been established a long time ago that there are seven different kinds of intelligent (or eight, depending on which theory you agree with). That's like rating someone's "confidence." It's not something you either "have" or "don't have." Some people have greater degrees of it in one area and lesser in others.
A very intriguing little hypothesis there, anyway, but there's no substance to it, so therefore my comment would be...

next?

Answer 7

Well I did not read everythging but I get it. and your data is wrong most women are like a 9. I myself would be a 9.5 yes I am a girl. I am 10 years old and in a gifted class (smart people only) however I must point out there are more girls than boys in my class. Also ALL gifted teachers in my school are WOMEN!!!

Answer 8

I'd say you were about a 2 possible a 3

Answer 9

Can I just say Women can bear the greatest pain and produce the sweetest thing (A child) That is greater than any spear or 'Genius' of urs!!!!
(i may be biast, but at least i admit it)

Answer 10

I want to know where you're getting your data.