>I have no idea why there are more men than women on
>lists. It's an important question and I'd like to dig
>deeper. The lazy boy theory however, doesn't strike
>me as a serious contender.
>
>
>.d.
There's research out there already on this. A lot of it does have to do with available time. From my own observations, it often has to do with ability to use work time to read lists and, sometimes, respond. Some of it has to do with a tendency for women to dislike the way men typically carry on debates. I usually get called a guy and I've had women complain to me that, because I proceed in a way that's normal here, they perceive the same style elsewhere as confrontational. Lack of interest in the subject matter is another factor.
The study on men's achievement in high school and college apparently has a lot of holes in it. It's being used by the right wingers to argue that men are oppressed as men, too, waaaaaaah, and all this talk of women's equality has got to end because look at what's happening, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. They are blaming it on sissified schooling, waaaaaaaah, and are also using it as a wedge to argue for vouchers and charter schools, etc. waaaaaaaaah.
Have crappy dial up access or I'd look up the criticisms of the study.
As leftists, though, it's obvious why men don't try as hard at school: they've been taught they don't have to. There are still people who think they can't get decent jobs with a high school education, so they don't worry about. Women are taught, conversely, that they are still up against gender inequality and have to be better than men just to get a little less than men expect to get as their due. Women in college also know that they may have to go on to do graduate work, so they have to keep at the grades. Guys in college think like a lot of people in college think, especially at the elite colleges where I taught: it's all a matter of who you know as to landing a job after college and it'll have little to do with grades. Certainly demonstrating knowledge on the job is unimportant, to their minds. So, they rationalize why it's best to cheat: no one will care if they know what they learn in college in order for them to get and keep a job.
(As I've mentioned before, this is in sharp contrast to what working class kids and adults think about school. Their own life experience tells them that they need to cultural knowledge to make it anywhere.)
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