14E - Jackson Hole Woman JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, October 20, 2021
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From grades in school to investment results, the ‘weaker sex’ wins. By Richard Anderson
I say let us put man and a woman together To find out which one is smarter. Some say man but I say no The woman got the man de day should know. So goes the old calypso tune, “Man Smart (Woman Smarter),” attributed to Norman “King Radio” Span, who recorded the instructive song in 1936, and covered by hundreds, including Harry Belafonte, Chubby Checker, Rosanne Cash, the Carpenters and of course the Grateful Dead. Span’s not the only one to recognize the superiority of the long-reputed “weaker sex.” “I have an idea that the phrase ‘weaker sex’ was coined by some woman to disarm the man she was preparing to overwhelm,” poet Ogden Nash supposedly said. “Basically, all women are nurturers and healers, and all men are mental patients to varying degrees,” quoth action adventure novelist Nelson DeMille. And then there’s this: “Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.” So said none other than Socrates, who, you’ll recall, went to his grave to stand up for his beliefs. But there’s no reason to take the word of a bunch of old white men. Science itself has demonstrated the many ways those XX’ers surpass the XY’ers.
‘Women are smarter’
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“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.” — Margaret Thatcher Smarts takes many forms: Some say four, some say seven, others 10 or 12. Developmental psychologist Howard Gardner (from Harvard, so you know he was one smart monkey) in 1983 settled on eight kinds of intelligences, which have held fairly fast over the past decades: spatial, verbal-linguistic, musical-rhythmic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic and bodilykinesthetic. Skirting worn-out metrics like IQ, Gardner’s theory made room for different people to learn in different ways. There’s a ton of highly academic research that supposedly shows how men excel in some modes of intelligence and women in others, but in the cursory review of that research that
this article is based on, nothing leapt out as statistically significant. But then there was this, from Harvard Business Law: “Research: Women score higher than men in most leadership skills.” In this June 2019 article, authors Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (men) noted that for the first time in the history of the United States, a bunch of women from major political parties had jumped into the fray and were running for the White House. While many a TV talking head wondered whether the U.S. was ready to elect a woman — or if it would ever be ready — Harvard concluded years ago that women leaders were “every bit as effective as men” and, in fact, when rated by their peers and managers, male and female alike, scored significantly higher than men in 17 out of 19 metrics of leadership competencies. These included taking initiative (55.6 percentile for women vs. 48.2 percentile for men), resilience (54.7 vs. 49.3), self-development (54.8 vs. 49.6), drives for results (53.9 vs. 48.8) high integrity and honesty (54 vs. 49.1), develops others (54.1 vs. 49.8), inspires others (53.9 vs. 49.7), old leadership (53.2 vs. 49.8), builds relationships (53.2 vs. 49.9) and champions change (53.1 vs. 49.9). By closer margins, women outscored men in establishing “stretch goals,” collaborating and working as a team, connecting with the outside world, communicating powerfully and prolifically, solving problems and analyzing issues, leadership speed and innovation. Men barely outdid women in technical or professional expertise (51.1 percentile for men vs. 50.1 for women (and developing strategic perspectives (51.4 vs. 50.1). Nevertheless, the Harvard study found, just 4.9% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 2% of S&P CEOs are women — “and those numbers are declining globally.” Harvard chalks the disparity up to centuries-old stereotypes and biases — women choose not to pursue high ranks in organizations, for example — which are pervasive, enduring and, according to plenty of other research it cites, wrong. “Interestingly,” the Harvard article continues, “our data shows that when women are asked to assess themselves, they are not as generous in their ratings.” Based on self-assessments (collected since 2016 from 3,876 men and 4,779 women, to date), women rated themselves lower and men higher in confidence and other positive leadership traits, especially when they were See SMARTER on 22E
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