your comment:
> My (also single) dad says that men are smarter and more ambitious than women, that womens' place is at home, taking care of the children and that society is broken because women are trying to do the things that men are naturally better at doing and don't want to do what they're good at.
Men are smarter at what exactly? Mathematics?
Although the question of whether there is a gender difference in math seems like a simple one, the answer is complicated. Overall there are only small differences in boys’ and girls’ math performance; those differences depend on the age and skill level of the student, what type of math they are attempting and how big of a dissimilarity is needed to say that boys’ and girls’ math performance is truly different.
Ambitious? Again, Ambitious at what? travelling the world? starting and sustaining a family? or is it solely on what dollar amount is ascribed to an hour of your day?
A womans place is at home is about as sexist an argument I have ever heard. By that logic my "place" is running around the jungle with a spear? please don't argue such bad faith.
If I were to try to dig into what your argument actually is then I would assume you dislike my comment because it leans heavily on what my mother said.
We're I arguing in bad faith I would probably say that you're rejecting her logic so outrightly because she is a woman.
But I'm going to try to argue something else.
I'm going to ask what smart and ambitious mean mean to you.
Conversely, I don't know what your mom meant by "how women think about things".
How do women think about things? I mean- according to your mom. You report her saying and seem to agree with it. Do you know what she means?
Edit: Do I really need to make it clear I disagree with my dad? I'm a woman. Is it very likely I reported here what my dad says to argue that I'm less smart and less ambitious than a man?
I don't believe I ever argued that I understood women?
I Merely stated that on average women differ from men and that it's no less valuable- I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that I believe that I know how women think.
It's genuinely impossible to know how all women think just like it's impossible to know how all _people_ think.
But you report her words here and you seem to agree with her. If you don't understand what she means, how can you agree with her? And why report her words if you don't know what she means?
I believe I clearly understood my mothers intent here, I am comfortable defending the statement, where am I ambiguous in my understanding?
I can call her if you want me to confirm but in my opinion her words were incredibly concise and clear.
Her exact words were “men and women are equal but different, in many ways they’re complimentary” she then explained that some men look down on women because they didn’t value how women think about things.
I'm dangerously close to stating common stereotypes so please take the following with good faith;
I knew a female engineer who was very good at her job (she was in networking), after having a child she discussed with her husband (also a network engineer at another company, roughly the same pay) about reducing her working hours.
He was fine with it, but he was open to also taking time off, she felt it was needed because she was the mother, purely her choice. Her manager took it graciously and put her down to 80% time.
However, one engineer resented that she was away 2-half-days a week, he ascribed values that he held to her and couldn't understand why she would want to be home with her kid instead of making more of her career.
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a male example: I have a close personal friend who is what you would call a manly-man.
His girlfriend obviously loves him, but his girlfriends best friend is not a fan of how he's "aloof", often she considers that he is secretly plotting something or is going to cheat on her. He lacks the empathy to be "seriously deep". He might even be a psychopath; by the way she tells it anyway.
The truth is that he's just a bigger guy and he is quiet, it's different when it's just me and him but with a large group he recedes into being very quiet.
She never made much of an effort to connect with him; but she judges him based on values she has, values about being open and warm and caring and smiley.
My mother has more "anecdotes" but the way things are is that it's not statistically backed. But it's a good rule of thumb to ensure that I at least try to understand someone else's values before I judge their actions (or, non-actions).
I don’t think there is anything I can say to convey the meaning I meant then. I’m sorry that I am not understandable.
Not to mention that there seems to be considerable scientific controversy on what this "modern scientific understanding" is -and how else could it be? Science is a debate- I doubt we can settle it by listening to what our moms and dads say.