Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 23, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A11 Winnipeg free press comment editor wednesday August 23, 2006 Gerald flood 697-7269 and beyond its a Girlie mans world the economist o be of last years better entertainments was the Larry Summers show. The Row Over whether Summers the then president of Harvard University was right or wrong to say that natural ability May be one of the reasons Why there Are fewer female than male math professors at Harvard brought plea sure to politically Correct and incorrect alike. It con firmed the prejudices of both about each other and led to the downfall of a Man beloved by neither. Summers May have been right. In most intellectual areas such As vocabulary and verbal reasoning the differences Between men and women Are statistically insignificant. But the Long Tail of mathematical Genius does tend to be male along with higher rates of idiocy and masturbation. While women show less mathematical brilliance than men their scores Are better in some verbal skills. These differences May or May not be innate but the argument anyway misses the Point. The interesting question is not whether men Are More Likely to be weirdly Good at math than women Are but whether the things that men Are Good at Are More or less useful than the things that women Are Good at. And the answer in the Rich world at least is no. Technology and globalization Are undermining the usefulness of male skills. Take map Reading. The female tendency to Call for five right turns while holding the map upside Down playing i spy with the children and remarking on interesting features of the local half Tim Bering has been attested to Over Many decades by impartial scientists As Well As by irritated husbands. Satellite navigation but once satellite navigation rendered the ability to Tell the cartographic difference Between a parking lot and a Lake redundant that aspect of male superiority disappeared out of the window along with the crucial pages of the Road Atlas that the toddler removed while practising his Superior hand Eye co ordination skills. Men studies show Are exceedingly Good at rotating three dimensional shapes in their head. Perhaps women once stared open mouthed in wonder As their mates juggled pyramids of imaginary polyhedral. Such tricks Are also quite Handy for engineers who specialize in building Large bits of machinery digging tunnels or slinging Bridges across Rivers. But now that the Rich world has about As Many tunnels and Bridges As it needs and the Large bits of machinery that Arent made by computers and robots Are made by the Chi Nese their usefulness is limited. Modern professional life is dominated by manage ment which these Days sets High store by emotional intelligence empathy and communication. Wise chaps seeking professional advancement should therefore spend their free time with groups of women boning up on How to undermine somebody a Confidence while pretending to boost it and How to turn an entire lunch table against an absent colleague without saying a mean word. Such skills Are Likely to have a greater influence on their lifetime earnings than the ability to spin an Icosahedron. Its a Girlie mans world As Arnold Schwarzenegger did to say ;