If there's one thing that's unquestionably fucking moronic, it's the argument from authority fallacy of saying "Look, an 'expert' said it, so it must be true". Unless it's an expert that doesn't support your bias, in which case they clearly don't know what they're talking about.
You can have a published, peer-reviewed paper in a high impact journal and still have it disputed, or have other papers that show non-supportive conclusions. It happens all the time.
My gf is biochemist with a phD and works in genetics, and we've discussed the subject at length. In terms of choosing a career path, there isn't any immediate genetic predisposition towards picking a particular career, but there are numerous aspects of human dimorphism that would convey particular advantages. In males this is most evident in jobs requiring physical strength. There's nothing to say a woman can't be strong, or stronger than an untrained male, but more importantly there's nothing that exists by a virtue of sex to predispose them to being, say, a labourer on a building site.
Similarly, men have a greater tendency to take risks. I believe that's primarily hormonal and can lead to other 'interesting' behaviours (
le link), but this may also convey an advantage in a career where risk-taking is rewarded. Say perhaps in banking. Obviously a willingness to take risks isn't coupled with innate intelligence, so the simple aspect of being risky is also likely to express more extreme examples of failure rather than playing it safe. At no point would anyone say a woman can't or wouldn't take risks but on the average it might explain some examples of success in that area.
I think it's better to assume there are many factors in play, rather than saying 'HURR PATRIARCHY' or writing something off as 'Shit science' when you haven't had any direct sight of the matter or methods involved. Neither is being able to scrounge up a link to support something comprehensive proof of an argument.
Curio I'd respond more to your points but your reply was a bit confused had lumped together things that I hadn't said. I didn't say there weren't women in low paid jobs or that men prefer certain industries, but neither is there any attempt to right the imbalance of sexual representation in those low-paid traditionally male jobs either.
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Mr Kissyfur wrote:
Pretty much everyone agrees with Gnomes,
really, it's just some are too right on to admit it.