It should not be controversial to claim that through popular culture and inherited prejudices we constantly reproduce an image of smart women as the exception. Unfortunately, this myth does not seem to die with rising generations. As Frøya Fluge points out in her column for Ytring, trends and algorithms in social media are not always girls’ best friends: “Girl math” is used as a term for having failing economic logic, while it is the man’s basic mode to ponder the Roman Empire. Predetermined results In the book “Delusions of Gender”, psychologist and researcher Cordelina Fine goes through a series of studies in which the participants are influenced by gender stereotypes. In short, it turns out that we become our learned strengths or weaknesses: Men’s performance in a spatial comprehension test was weakened when they were told in advance that the ability was an advantage in traditionally feminine occupations such as knitting – despite the fact that men are known to have better spatial understanding than women. Women start with a poor intellectual self-image, especially when dealing with mathematics. At the City University of New York, a maths class was given a very challenging test that “was supposed to map why some students were better at maths.” One test group was informed that no test differences had been found between genders. The women in this group performed better than both women and men, just by having negative assumptions about themselves refuted, which automatically arose in women without information that gender was irrelevant. Imaginations are powerful. The idea of gender-typical characteristics limits women, but also men. It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy to repeat endlessly that boys struggle to sit still and read theoretical subjects. We deprive girls of mastery by explaining away academic strength with the fact that the school system is so adapted to them. How does it affect children’s behavior when high grades become “feminine”? Invisible, smart women Mensa is an organization for those who perform in the top 2 percent on an approved IQ test. The proportion of women in our association is only 24 per cent. There can be many reasons for this, but the most obvious is that there are far more men who take IQ tests. On the previous test day in Oslo, 28 per cent had typical female names. Women self-select out. It is difficult to say whether the janteloven has a stronger effect on women, or whether women simply do not strive to prove that they have a high IQ. One possible explanation is that we get more positive feedback for other types of characteristics, such as appearance and care. Another is that we have less time to invest in the CV and hobbies outside of family life (like Mensa becomes too many). What I can say for sure is that for me as a woman it has been a revolutionary experience to enter an environment where I don’t have to prove anything. Only in the absence of being underestimated in all conversations did I understand how often it happened otherwise on a daily basis. The glass ceiling is us You may think that the last thing the world needs is more people who think they are smarter than others, and that IQ is a poor measure of success. Thats true. At the same time, we must break with the notion that IQ is for boys in order to have a more equal working life. To dare to ask for equal pay, we must stop underselling our abilities. It is difficult if deep down we think most men are smarter than us. Women are still in the minority by a good margin in management in business and academia. Unfortunately, several studies show that women (and melanin-rich) receive a negative response for promoting people similar to themselves, because we all subconsciously assume that they have emphasized “sisterhood” more strongly than competence. As if there is any contradiction. Women are stupid until proven otherwise through exceptional results. It is not surprising if it reinforces “self-group distancing”: that women rather seek cooperation with male colleagues in order to achieve increased credibility and visibility. Or the “queen bee phenomenon”: that women do not support other women for fear that there is limited space for successful ladies in a male-dominated environment. The company’s biggest bitch is probably internalized misogyny. We must change our view of women We keep hearing that we must strengthen interest in science and vocational subjects in response to the green shift. At the same time, the health sector is crying out for personnel. By getting more women to think they are suited to robotics and men to be proud of choosing a paid caring role, we can expand the recruitment base for these professions. Making highly educated women harmless can also give the men Simen Velle is so worried about, a more active sex life. When loud-mouthed, right-wing profiles in the manosphere make women with active brains and inactive wombs the enemy of society because they give birth to too few Norwegians, the single men who listen to them are doing a disservice. Smart women struggle in the dating market, but why should they want to sleep with their worst critics? Judit Polgár did not become one of the world’s best chess players by chance – she was systematically and deliberately raised to become one by parents who had no doubt that she had the aptitude for it. This is how we as a society must also raise smart, immodest, handy women who think they are really good at maths and are not afraid to say so on a date. Here we are not at the finish line yet. One day, girl math will mean being really good at math. Happy Women’s Day!
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Smarter than you think – Speech
