Saying that women are better at FOO than men can be harmful to women.
By
Rachel
on February 24, 2007
FOO is a variable for whatever claim people might wish to make.
There seems to be this idea that saying that women are better than men at something is okay or somehow supportive of women. Yet, traditionally, saying women are better at something has been used to cause harm to women.
It can cause harm in numerous ways. One way is it tries to pressure women into taking on certain tasks. Take the idea that women are better at nurturing babies; this tries to encourage women to be the homemaker. Similarly for the idea that women are naturally better at housework.
It also can be harmful because if women are better at something, then it can be argued that the males should be given more resources toward working on the subject, since they need it more. Don't help the girls in the English class, since women are naturally better at language.
It can also cause certain jobs to be viewed as women-only. For example, men have often been discouraged from becoming nurses. Careers that are women-only traditionally are paid less, so by keeping the field only for women, it makes it easier to have systemic sexism that hurts both men and women.
If there is an actual difference then admitting it is useful. Women, for example, are, on average, better at breastfeeding babies than men are. And that's okay. But if you're going to make a claim about what women are better at than men, it is very important that you be sure you are right, because spreading misinformation is harmful even when erring on the side of saying that women are better.
Agreed
37
2
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Discussion (3)
Oh, it's also potentially harmful in that if a female is interested in a subject not generally viewed as one females are better at, she is more likely to be encouraged to go into a field women are viewed as good at. No dear, don't bother with upper level math, you'll have more use for developing your verbal skills since you're naturally good at that.
That and the expectations of your teachers is likely to influence the ability of the child (this has been tested and verified). So, believing in these differences encourages their existance. And better at one topic is naturally worse at another. Plus, unfair to males. But that's a different point.
...are you talking about a local variable or a global variable? Cause my answer depends on that...
Can you explain what you mean? I only know those terms in the context of programming, and can't make it apply in this case. I'll gladly explain what I mean though.