Taking Sex Differences Seriously

Two recent news articles highlight sex differences, in an age when most academics try to deny them. Men and Women Use the Internet Differently and an animal study, Male Monkeys Prefer Toy Cars, Females Like Dolls.

Mainstream feminism chafes at such accounts from the real world. The radicals who have taken over university Women's Studies Departments become ill at the mere suggestion that men and women may have different interests or aptitudes.

But "Some critics of mainstream feminism consider themselves feminists, but of a different kind. Their outlook is captured well in the title of Christina Hoff Sommers' book Who Stole Feminism? . . . Sommers and other equity feminists are open to the idea that women may have different natures, which could lead many of them to pursue different life paths from men's even if given every opportunity that men are given." Page 14,15 Taking Sex Differences Seriously by Steven E. Rhoads.

Pretending that men and women are the same is living in fantasy. The fact that most academics, most journalists, most feminists, and most politicians choose to live in that fantasy does not require a thinking person to do so.


Lawrence Summers was almost fired from Harvard for making a few tentative understated remarks about sex differences. Fortunately he is good at his job and had the support of the board. He also has science on his side, and science will not sit silently on the side for much longer.