Men v. women

Men may think they are smarter than women. I suppose a lot depends on what the question is. I'm sure there are a whole lot of quiz questions that would relate to a woman and they would have no idea what the answer is. Also, if men are so smart why is it that they can't find anything around the house. Even if that something is always kept in the same place they can't find it. Also when it comes to putting things away why do they put it in the most ridiculous place??

As you said in your earlier post, women can be their own worst enemy.

I worked mainly in predominantly male environments and while men would bitch (I use that term advisedly) on occasions about someone getting promotion or other advancement, which they didn't think they deserved, but they never resented someone for taking opportunities where they had turned the opportunity down.

If women underestimate their abilities and men over estimate theirs then women should do what the men do, or at least if they do not want to they must live with the consequences and stop whinging..

Monica Is the resentment shown by female workers of the progress of their more pro-active colleagues a response exclusively found in women? I'm sure there must be some men who also react in the same way when a male colleague gets promoted above them.

In 2008 Science Daily reported on some research which had found that female medical students under-estimated their abilities, whereas males over-estimated theirs.

Unfortunately, many women are still reticent about about putting themselves forward. One example has been in the news lately about men earning more than women in some fields because they are more likely to be pushy in negotiating better pay.
My DS is a physicist; where he works the male physicists out number the women 10 to 1 (4000 work there). I can't believe women can't do physics Their confidence has been sapped at some stage.
HOWEVER his female boss has been made head of the whole of the organisation and featured as one of the women of the year 2015.....

I am a mine of (sometimes) useless information. Always have been. My DH often wonders out loud how I know so many things

When I lived in England the village where I lived used to hold quizzes a few times a year to raise funds for the village hall etc. It was interesting to find that the group who usually one was the local goat breeders association.

The women I found most difficult were those who had had the same opportunities as me but didn't take them up and then resented the fact that I had and therefore had a better job and was in a more senior position. I do not think any of them had internalised their sense of inferiority, though that is an interesting idea and I am sure it happens.

Monica You say "During my life I have found that the worst enemies of women achieving their goals are other women". I do think there is some truth in that but I think it has arisen because historically women were seen, and treated, as inferior to men - and some people still view them that way. (You only have to look at the way that "intellectual" women - such as Mary Beard - are treated to see that it is quite risky to speak authoritatively about almost any serious subject.) Some women have internalised that belief (though I'm hoping fewer younger women) and, as a result, they tend to see women's lack of progress in the public sphere as self-inflicted.

This happened with black people in the US, some of whom began to believe that they were intrinsically inferior in appearance and intellect to white people , and so deferred to them. I think the Black is Beautiful campaign was primarily an attempt not to make white people think differently but to change the psyche of black people who had internalised the belief that they were unattractive and intellectually inferior.

One bad experience with a female boss (or indeed no experience of having a female boss) and some women will say "I don't want to work for a woman". And yet they may have had many bad experiences working for a male boss but I have never heard a woman say "I don't like working for a man".

My husband and his friends wouldn't agree with this statement as I know lots of interesting general knowledge - gathered over a lifetime of reading books, newspapers and more recently online research. They always seem to end up asking me how do I know such wide ranging snippets. Stuff just seems to stick in my head; useful in daily life ....or not:0)

Does anyone else have difficulty understanding some of the questions, let alone knowing the answers? It cheers me up that they are all so clever.

greyduster, I too am a Scorpio. I never knew I was destined to be a mine of useless information but so it has proved! I don't consider that those very involved maths questions on University Challenge are General Knowledge - more like very specialised knowledge. However, many of the scientists and medics in the teams have good general knowledge on the arts side. As for women, the girl who captained the winning team was very knowledgeable indeed. When we had an informal quiz with friends one new year, my sister and I wiped the floor with her husband (retired Uni lecturer) who thinks very highly of himself and my dear friend who might have had a little too much champagne.

Well said MOnica,
Now can we all try our very best to raise our granddaughters to be strong, resilient and confident young women who support their female friends?
Don't know where I'd be without mine.

On the subject in question, I read avidly as a little girl and can remember loads of stuff I learned from the encyclopaedias I devoured and though I am an atheist I always get the religion questions right in quizzes.
I do pretty well at the University Challenge questions apart from the more complex science and maths ones which sound like double dutch.
I went to a teacher training college in Bradford so couldn't have gone on UC but both male and female friends at the university seemed to think it was uncool to want to be on it. This was in the late 60s.

Eloethan, I can't tell you how often it has happened to me! I now keep my trap shut , but when you're young and enthusiastic, it really isn't fair - to quote the playground mantra

I too am a mine of useless information and usually do quite well at pub quizzes, except for questions about sport and pop music, when I am dragooned into going to one (when it's for a charity for example). However I think that it is one of the most boring ways to spend an evening ever devised. I suspect that quite a lot of women might feel the same way. Give me my sampler and Radio 4 any day!

We're certainly demonstrating that women are VERY talented at making excuses for not attempting something!

There you go then,that's one difference,most females worry about what they look like,most males don't .As for confidence and intelligence,that can go either way,my great niece is much more academic and confident than her brother,(bless him)
Most females I know wouldn't dream of going out without makeup etc,
Not me of course,I'm beautiful enough without it,

Eloethan - that just about sums it up. Thank you. I love Punch cartoons.

Oh come on loads of people have heaps of useless info, they can't all be Scorpios (I'm not!)

I'd have LOL'd Eloethan had that not been so true

Maggiemaybe -

punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000eHEXGJ_wImQ

Well, NotTooOld, I have really only had experience of one ex forces chap at close quarters, and I could have shot him down, literally! I'm sure they're not all the same though (says she, ducking).

I'm another Scorpio who is a mine of useless information (never realised before it was a Scorpio thing).

Maggiemaybe - the quiz was only part of the evening's entertainment. I found it very strange myself that the women took the attitude they did. The circles I usually move in, it is the women who take the lead! Must be a lack of confidence, I suppose; I certainly felt cross about it. Many of the men were ex forces and very dominant. I expect I'll get shot down now!

My father used to say [to my great puzzlement when I was very little], that women were the more intelligent sex - they would let men think that they had thought of/done something, when in fact it was the woman.
What about "Every man owes his success to his first wife and his second to his success"?
Says volumes?