The more equal a society gender wise, the more women feel free to make choices like study the liberal arts. Had I been an Indian immigrant instead of being born here I might have studied a stem field but I felt more free to pick what I wanted to learn instead. In less equal countries women are likelier to study stem. When you point this out people think you’re being sexist. So more women go to college than men, and more women study the liberal arts than men, which puts the political differences on overdrive because leftists and woman are the vast majority of professors in many of those fields. It’s a snowball. And none of my single women friends realize that men’s lower aggregate economic prospects and fewer going to college are major reasons they are still single. It’s a shame because no individual woman can do anything about it, and I fear we’re headed off the cliff of population decline because men mate horizontally and down and women horizontally and up. I’m not sure anyone will convince women to mate horizontally and down based on educational attainment, and people of different classes don’t even mix.
There is no time in history where humanity has attempted this current Western experiment of a female dominated society. I don't think it is going very well. I think as a species we have not evolved nearly fast enough to adopt what are significantly disruptive changes to almost everything. I am not optimistic about the future.
In my long corporate career observing and experiencing gender differences in the workplace, there is a profound difference in how females tend to forge, maintain and manage relationships... and much of their tendency is not healthy for the work culture. I would bet that this behavior is based on years of tribal evolution... where female interactions and behaviors have been patterned for survival and thriving in the context of their existence. Those impulses seem very baked-in and often at odds with how people should behave to optimize outcomes.
For example, I have situations with female coworkers owning personal grudges never go away and they attempt to undermine and destroy the reputation of other people, but in a stealth mode. Typically for the male employees conflict is open and direct and can be cleared up so we can move on. When you add up all the unresolved conflict in a workplace with many females, trust evaporates and the work culture devolves.
Females tend to weirdly gravitate toward a collectivist model of cooperation while internally and individually making cooperation more difficult.
I am generalizing here as there are males that do the same. But there is a definite gender difference and I think much of the chaos we all feel in our politics and society are related to this domination of females and the backroom and underground character assassination tendency they demonstrate.
"The differences have been largest in societies that have gone the furthest in attempting to treat women and men the same." I'm not sure what is meant by treating the same. Men and women in the USA have the same constitutional protections and opportunities to develop one's skills and abilities, but I don't see people generally treating men and women the same in daily interactions. The going fable is dems/liberals have the feminine qualities of being more empathetic and caring. Perhaps the tendency of females to identify as liberal more than males is to signal their "femininity." Disclosure: I did not get to read the article as it was behind a paywall.
Fine, reasonable op-ed, as a start, which unfortunately didn't tell me anything new, tho maybe for many the truth is less known. But with labels being so important to the story, I'd like more specifics about what the labels mean.
"Liberals" believe in nearly absolute free speech, especially accepting all obscenities & vulgarisms. I don't think women are more accepting of free speech, free thought, and respectful disagreement.
It's increasingly less clear what "liberal" or "conservative" mean, other than a mushy Democrat or Republican voting preference. Was there even one specific example of a liberal vs conservative difference in the article?
Vague "longstanding injustices".
Various categories have seen bigger sex divergence, but the "Lib" vs "Con" labels don't seem to apply so much to academic majors, physical aggression, self-esteem, crying, or casual sex.
On casual sex, what are the differences? Liberals prefer more casual sex, or conservatives? I'm pretty sure most women want less casual sex, and most men want more. With female sexual liberation favoring the "Chad" womanizing alphas more, and resulting in more 40+ y.o. women childless, lonely, somewhat depressed -- yet strongly pro-Democrat and pro-abortion. Is that what "liberal" means?
On crime, "women view misconduct more unfavorably than men" -- yet it is usually the liberals who allow criminals to be freed and able to commit more crime.
Great statistics about self-ID surveys with 55% up to 71% of college women being liberal -- but what does that really mean in behavior? And in voting, explicitly, rather than labels. I'd guess more Dem votes than just the number of liberals, but similar.
Really excellent conclusion: "The freer people are and the more fairly they are treated, the more differences tend to grow rather than shrink."
But I claim the biggest political polarization is the acceptance of illegal discrimination by colleges against hiring Republican professors. Many of the biggest pro-life Christians are Republican women, but virtually none of the professors at Ivy+ colleges are like that.
By unspoken, unwritten, and unprovable, yet real discrimination.
[My Proposed solution - quotas! 30% of professors & Board Trustees should be Republicans, & 30% Democrats.]
The more equal a society gender wise, the more women feel free to make choices like study the liberal arts. Had I been an Indian immigrant instead of being born here I might have studied a stem field but I felt more free to pick what I wanted to learn instead. In less equal countries women are likelier to study stem. When you point this out people think you’re being sexist. So more women go to college than men, and more women study the liberal arts than men, which puts the political differences on overdrive because leftists and woman are the vast majority of professors in many of those fields. It’s a snowball. And none of my single women friends realize that men’s lower aggregate economic prospects and fewer going to college are major reasons they are still single. It’s a shame because no individual woman can do anything about it, and I fear we’re headed off the cliff of population decline because men mate horizontally and down and women horizontally and up. I’m not sure anyone will convince women to mate horizontally and down based on educational attainment, and people of different classes don’t even mix.
There is no time in history where humanity has attempted this current Western experiment of a female dominated society. I don't think it is going very well. I think as a species we have not evolved nearly fast enough to adopt what are significantly disruptive changes to almost everything. I am not optimistic about the future.
In my long corporate career observing and experiencing gender differences in the workplace, there is a profound difference in how females tend to forge, maintain and manage relationships... and much of their tendency is not healthy for the work culture. I would bet that this behavior is based on years of tribal evolution... where female interactions and behaviors have been patterned for survival and thriving in the context of their existence. Those impulses seem very baked-in and often at odds with how people should behave to optimize outcomes.
For example, I have situations with female coworkers owning personal grudges never go away and they attempt to undermine and destroy the reputation of other people, but in a stealth mode. Typically for the male employees conflict is open and direct and can be cleared up so we can move on. When you add up all the unresolved conflict in a workplace with many females, trust evaporates and the work culture devolves.
Females tend to weirdly gravitate toward a collectivist model of cooperation while internally and individually making cooperation more difficult.
I am generalizing here as there are males that do the same. But there is a definite gender difference and I think much of the chaos we all feel in our politics and society are related to this domination of females and the backroom and underground character assassination tendency they demonstrate.
Congrats on the Op-Ed gig!
That is terrific
If you can’t access the Op-ed, one way around is to use reader mode in Safari. This will allow you to read Rob’s piece without subscribing.
Other ideas on how in Life Hacker’s “ How to Get Past a Paywall to Read an Article…”
P.S. Congratulations, Rob! Awesome to see you lock-in such an opportunity.
"The differences have been largest in societies that have gone the furthest in attempting to treat women and men the same." I'm not sure what is meant by treating the same. Men and women in the USA have the same constitutional protections and opportunities to develop one's skills and abilities, but I don't see people generally treating men and women the same in daily interactions. The going fable is dems/liberals have the feminine qualities of being more empathetic and caring. Perhaps the tendency of females to identify as liberal more than males is to signal their "femininity." Disclosure: I did not get to read the article as it was behind a paywall.
Congratulations for your column at the Boston Globe!
Fine, reasonable op-ed, as a start, which unfortunately didn't tell me anything new, tho maybe for many the truth is less known. But with labels being so important to the story, I'd like more specifics about what the labels mean.
"Liberals" believe in nearly absolute free speech, especially accepting all obscenities & vulgarisms. I don't think women are more accepting of free speech, free thought, and respectful disagreement.
It's increasingly less clear what "liberal" or "conservative" mean, other than a mushy Democrat or Republican voting preference. Was there even one specific example of a liberal vs conservative difference in the article?
Vague "longstanding injustices".
Various categories have seen bigger sex divergence, but the "Lib" vs "Con" labels don't seem to apply so much to academic majors, physical aggression, self-esteem, crying, or casual sex.
On casual sex, what are the differences? Liberals prefer more casual sex, or conservatives? I'm pretty sure most women want less casual sex, and most men want more. With female sexual liberation favoring the "Chad" womanizing alphas more, and resulting in more 40+ y.o. women childless, lonely, somewhat depressed -- yet strongly pro-Democrat and pro-abortion. Is that what "liberal" means?
On crime, "women view misconduct more unfavorably than men" -- yet it is usually the liberals who allow criminals to be freed and able to commit more crime.
Great statistics about self-ID surveys with 55% up to 71% of college women being liberal -- but what does that really mean in behavior? And in voting, explicitly, rather than labels. I'd guess more Dem votes than just the number of liberals, but similar.
Really excellent conclusion: "The freer people are and the more fairly they are treated, the more differences tend to grow rather than shrink."
But I claim the biggest political polarization is the acceptance of illegal discrimination by colleges against hiring Republican professors. Many of the biggest pro-life Christians are Republican women, but virtually none of the professors at Ivy+ colleges are like that.
By unspoken, unwritten, and unprovable, yet real discrimination.
[My Proposed solution - quotas! 30% of professors & Board Trustees should be Republicans, & 30% Democrats.]
Interesting discussion on spectator about the differences between British and American views on class.