of a true/false quiz. Each claim is made either by “feminists” or their detractors (“anti-feminists”, “Mens Right Activists” (MRA's), religious conservatives, etc). • Try to guess the correct answer and then we will see what I was able to find on Google. • I tried to find impartial sources (sites not related to the issue) and authoritative sources where possible (often very difficult). Links to the sources are provided so you won't say I'm making stuff up.
• 72 are women. • Therefore, the House is 83.3% men, 16.7% women. • The Senate has 100 members. • 17 are women. • Therefore, the Senate is 83% men, 17% women.
• 97.3% of directors were men (2.7% women) • 88.8% of writers were men (11.2% women) • 79.5% of producers were men (20.5% women), and • 70.1% of speaking characters in the films were male (29.9% were female).
workers were $669, compared with male median weekly earnings of $824. Based on these data, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly earnings was 81.2.” • “Another measure of the earnings gap, the ratio of women’s and men’s median annual earnings for full-time year- round workers, was 77.0 in 2009 (data for 2010 are not yet available).”
York State made on average $16,819 more than newly trained female physicians.” • The gender gap “cannot be explained by specialty choice, practice setting, work hours, or other characteristics.”
men were always less willing to work with a woman who had attempted to negotiate than with a woman who did not. They always preferred to work with a woman who stayed mum. But it made no difference to the men whether a guy had chosen to negotiate or not.”
split favoring women, both in enrollments and graduation rates.” • Hanna Rosin in her talk said 60% – she could have a more recent figure than what I was able to find independently.
are men, a bit higher than the statewide average of 17 percent.” • “At the University of Washington, usually only 12 percent to 15 percent of the students coming through the elementary prep teaching program are men.”
and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that were 8% greater on average, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in Slingerlands, N.Y.”
by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time salaries of young women are 8% higher than those of the guys in their peer group. In two cities, Atlanta and Memphis, those women are making about 20% more. This squares with earlier research from Queens College, New York, that had suggested that this was happening in major metropolises. But the new study suggests that the gap is bigger than previously thought, with young women in New...
Angeles and San Diego making 17%, 12% and 15% more than their male peers, respectively. And it also holds true even in reasonably small areas like the Raleigh-Durham region and Charlotte in North Carolina (both 14% more), and Jacksonville, Fla. (6%).”
could find data. • Percentage of managers who are women in various industries: – Medical and health services managers – 69.5% – Social and community service managers – 69.4% – Human resources managers – 66.8% – Advertising and promotions managers – 56.5% – Financial managers – 54.7%
20% • Single male – 12% • Unmarried couple – 8% • Other – 2% • (Data for 2010 from National Association of Realtors) • So, women are 54% of home buyers.
to a massive study in 2000 of 46,000 divorce cases across 4 states. • A survey of other studies by the same researchers going back to the 1960's show that women have initiated divorce in the US more than 2/3rds of the time in most states and decades that were studied.
rose to 3.6% during the five years ending in 2006.” (Wall Street Journal) • So the recepient is female 96.4% of the time. • “In 2005 (the latest year for which data are available), wives outearned their husbands in 33% of all families.” • So, based on earnings, you would expect alimony recipients to be women 66% of the time, not 96.4% of the time.
the second part is true. • Men are responsible for initiating domestic violence 59% of the time, not 50%. (From the CDC). • Women get 74% of the injuries requiring medical attention, not 59%. • This is according to the researcher's definitions of domestic violence – not the legal definition from the Violence Against Women's Act of 1994 (VAWA).
were interviewed. Among women, 43 reported being the victim of a physically violent act by an intimate partner during the preceding year. Of women reporting such violence, 26 reported being shoved, grabbed, or slapped; 17 reported being kicked, bitten, punched, or beaten or threatened/assaulted with a knife, gun, or other object. In comparison, 29 men reported physical violence by an intimate partner, of whom 13 reported more severe forms of violence. Among women reporting physical violence by an intimate partner, ...
intimate partner, 23 reported injuries to their head or face or injuries causing pain on other parts of the body lasting longer than 1 hour; 4 men who experienced physical violence reported being injured. During the 12 months preceding the survey, medical attention to treat injuries sustained from such violence was sought by 7 women and 2 men.”
men in the United States have been stalked at some time in their life. • 1 out of every 12 U.S. women (8.2 million) has been stalked at some time in her life, and 1 out of every 45 U.S. men (2 million) has been stalked at some time in his life. • (1998 NVAW survey)
Joe Marcum, Greg Brock, William "Griff" Griffith, Ricky Workman, Howard "Boone" Payne Jr., Steven J. Harrah, Benny Ray Willingham, Carl "Pee Wee" Acord, Deward Allan Scott, Robert E. Clark, William R. Lynch, Jason Atkins, Joe Price, Mike Elswick, Adam Morgan, Tim Davis, Cory Davis, Richard Lane, Rex Mullins, Nick McCroskey, Josh Napper, Dillard Persinger, Gary Wayne Quarles, Grover Skeens, Kenneth Chapman, James Mooney
• In Iraq, 3107 men and 83 women soldiers died between March 19, 2003 and February 6, 2010. • So the percentage of soldiers that died that were women was 2.6%. • 30% of US Army positions are closed for women.
(55 survived, 104 died). The survival rate for third class (steerage) women was 49% (88 survived, 91 died). • The survival rate for all men was 19% and the survival rate for all women was 72%. • The survival rate for first-class women was 97%.
samples of Austrian adults (totalling 763 men and 795 women), with women overall providing higher human non-paternity estimates than men (14.5% versus 9.1%).”
Edinburgh, UK, published in The Lancet, the peer- reviewed British medical journal, in 1991. (Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. You have to pay $31.50 to get the data.) • This study appears to be the most important because it was done on all the babies born during the study, while most paternity testing is done only when paternity is in doubt (and finds much higher non- paternity rates).
for determining what is called "effective population size" (size of past population that is represented in the current gene pool) and applying it to the sex- dependent parts of the human genome (mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome). The results show that humans have approximately twice as many female ancestors as male.
to become more and more antagonistic? – Why was Hanna Rosin's TED Talk the most disliked TED Talk ever? – Feminism vs anti-feminism to become a major cultural divide like liberalism vs conservatism? – Women and men in different information bubbles (women reading Cosmo, men reading Maxim, etc) hearing about the problems of their own gender and the advantages of the other, and rarely vice- versa?
advancement in education and business: – Women continue to advance indefinitely – Women advance to a certain point and stop – Women advance to a certain point, then the trend will reverse
ranks of society – billionaires, CEO's, Hollywood directors, members of congress? Or will women's advancement apply only to the middle of society – college degrees, etc? • If the top of society becomes gender-balanced, will the bottom of society (homeless, prisoners, etc) also become gender-balanced?
edge of these changes? Will these changes propagate throughout the world? • How can a futurist hope to predict what will happen without knowing why these changes are happening now? Just about any “why” explanation will rely on some type of gender stereotype and will be politically incorrect.
people using in-vitro fertilization in the US are requesting girls, not boys. Verdict: Unable to find data (from anyone other than Hanna Rosin) • Claim: Most advertising dollars are directed at women. Verdict: Unable to find data (but probably true: see the item on consumer spending). • Claim: Women receive favorable treatment in venture capital funding. Verdict: Unable to find data.
an extremely high rate following divorces. Verdict: Unable to find data. • Claim: Pornography causes rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Verdict: Unable to determine, data was contradictory. • Claim: Women find only about 10% of men truly attractive (“Alpha” males). Verdict: Unable to find data.
their divorce rates have divorce rates over 70%. Verdict: Unable to find data. • Claim: Following divorce, the woman's standard of living plummets by X percent while that of the man's improves by Y percent. (X and Y vary). Verdict: Unable to find data. • Claim: Men receive more severe punishment from the legal system for the same crimes. Verdict: Unable to find data.
female- dominated in history collapsed shortly thereafter. Verdict: Unable to determine, unable to define exactly which “civilizations” in “history” became “female dominated” (though we can agree on which collapsed: the (Western) Roman Empire, the Chou dynasty in China, the Harappan, Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the Hittite empire, the Minoan, the Mycenaean, the Olmec, the Chacoans, the Hohokam, the Hurari and Tiahuanaco, the Kachin, etc).
first modern “matriarchal” society: The head of state is female, the majority of the legislature is female, and since the 2008 financial crisis, women have been installed as heads of all the banks and financial institutions. Verdict: I was able to verify that Iceland does have a female head of state (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir) but could not verify the other claims.
the average child sees more than 50,000 hours of television. 97% of characters killed on television are men. Verdict: Unable to find data on fictional TV homicides. • Claim: Single women are better parents than single men, as measured by grades in school and standardized test scores and lack of delinquency and drug abuse. Lesbian couples are better parents than a heterosexual male/female married couple. Verdict: Unable to find data.
at all levels in school. Boys do worse than girls in elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. More boys are held back and each level and fewer graduate and progress to the next level at each statge. Verdict: could not find data for every segment of the educational process, only for college graduate and postgraduate degrees.