WMNST 325 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Cultural Feminism, Emotional Expression, Androcentrism
Document Summary
Argues that society should value women"s activities, traits and values (such as caring for others) Historically, gender research has been androcentric, with great efforts to present women/girls as inferior and deficient as compared to a male normative. Women"s brains were thought to be closer in size to gorillas. Scientists measured cranial size and ranked them. Variability hypothesis: asserts that men, as a group, are more variable in terms of their human behavior. Variability was viewed as a good thing-that it enables the species to evolve adaptively. Charles darwin believed that women did not compete for men in the same way men competed for women. Therefore, women do not take part in natural selection process they are consumed by care taking roles and reproduction. Overall women and men are far more similar than different, across cognitive abilities and skills. Boys score higher only on advanced standardized math tests, girls get better math grades overall.
