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Having read this article, I agree with you - it made me angry. The entire basis
of the writer's argument is based upon circular reasoning, particularly toward
the end.
It's an extremely biased piece of writing that is trying to pass itself off as
reasonable. Replace "men" with "white" in this essay, and "women" in this essay
with a minority cultural or ethnic group, and see how it reads. For those of you
too busy to read the whole thing, here's a paragraph to try it on:
"What does seem to be clear, from the record so far, is that
women do not have this capacity to innovate. They bring great talents
to developing what Thomas Kuhn called ?normal science,? but they
have no record of creating the ?paradigm shifts? that lead in new
directions. It may be, of course, that as the feminists sometimes
claim, this is because they were never encouraged to engage in
these activities. But to need encouragement, to depend on models to
follow, is precisely not to have a capacity to innovate. It has been
men who have invented things and found challenges in nature, such
as climbing high mountains or sailing alone around the world. And
once men have done it, women will also do it. These remain highly
notable enterprises, well beyond the reach of all but a few men, but
they also exemplify the fact that innovation remains largely the
specialization of white males. Women can do marvellous things with
a house, but they do need the house to be there in the first place. "
Note the claim that innovation remains the specialization of "white" males. I'd
put the whole thing in the same category as the 19th century essays offering
"scientific proof" that certain non-white "races" have thicker skull and reduced
intellectual capacity. I think it's alarming that articles like this are still
being written and taken seriously by anyone.
Respectfully,
Penny Staples
"Christensen, Kent" wrote:
> PS: For an article on occupations and how they are populated by the sexes,
> here is one that will make you mad if you agree with it and will make you
> mad if you don't. It's long and impresses me at least (easily impressed) as
> scholarly. I found it upon recommendation of a female writer for the
> Washington Times (conservative).
>http://newcriterion.com/archive/19/apr01/minogue.htm
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