Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-65tv2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-02T01:20:46.399Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is There a Natural Sexual Inequality of Intellect? A Reply to Kimura

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Jeffrey E. Foss
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The noted psychologist, Doreen Kimura, has argued that we should not expect to find equal numbers of men and women in various professions because there is a natural sexual inequality of intellect. In rebuttal I argue that each of these mutually supporting theses is insufficiently supported by the evidence to be accepted. The social and ethical dimensions of Kimura's work, and of the scientific study of the nature-nurture controversy in general, are briefly discussed.

Information

Type
Reply
Information
Hypatia , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , Summer 1996 , pp. 24 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barlow, David H., et al. 1974. Plasma testosterone levels in male homosexuality: A failure to replicate. Archives of Sexual Behavior 3: 571–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benbow, Camilla, and Stanley, Julian. 1980. Sex differences in mathematical ability: Fact or artifact? Science 210: 1262–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birk, Lee, et al. 1973. Serum testosterone levels in homosexual men. New England Journal of Medicine 289: 1236–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brodie, H. Keith, et al. 1974. Plasma testosterone levels in heterosexual and homosexual men. American Journal of Psychiatry 131: 82–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doerr, Peter, Pirke, Karl M., et al. 1976. Further studies on sex hormones in male homosexuals. Archives of General Psychiatry 33: 611–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doerr, Peter, et al. 1973. Plasma testosterone, estradiol, and semen analysis in male homosexuals. Archives of General Psychiatry 29: 829–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dorner, Gunter, et al. 1975. A neuroendocrine predisposition for homosexuality in men. Archives of Sexual Behavior 4: 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elias, M. 1981. Serum Cortisol, testosterone, and testosterone binding globulin responses to competitive fighting in human males. Aggressive Behavior 7: 215–24.3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fausto‐Sterling, Anne. 1985. Myths of gender: Biological theories about women and men. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Foss, Jeffrey E. 1996. Arithmetic and old lace. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (Summer), forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Lynn H., Brody, Linda, and Tobin, Dianne. 1980. Women and the mathematical mystique. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Richard C., et al. 1977. Hormones and sexual orientation in men. American Journal of Psychiatry 134: 571–72.Google ScholarPubMed
Friedman, Richard C., Wolleson, Flemming, and Tendler, Ruth. 1976. Psychological development and blood levels of sex steroids in male identical twins of divergent sexual orientation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 163: 282–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geary, David C. 1996. Sexual selection and sex differences in mathematical abilities. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (Summer), forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay. 1981. The mismeasure of man. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Hoyenga, Katherine Blick. 1993. Sex differences in human stratification: A biosocial approach. In Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality I: A comparative biosocial analysis, ed. Ellis, Lee. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Hubbard, Ruth, and Lowe, Marian. 1979. Introduction to Genes and gender II: Pitfalls in research on sex and gender, ed. Hubbard, Ruth and Lowe, Marian. New York: Gordian Press.Google Scholar
Hubel, D. H., and Wiesel, T. N. 1970. The period of susceptibility to the physiological effects of unilateral eye closure in kittens. Journal of Physiology 206: 419–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubel, D. H. 1972. Laminar and columnar distribution of geniculo‐cortical fibers in the macaque monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology 146: 421–50.Google ScholarPubMed
Hubel, D. H. 1977. Plasticity of ocular dominance columns in monkey striate cortex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 278: 377–409.Google ScholarPubMed
James, Sheelah, et al. 1977. Significance of androgen levels in the aetiology and treatment of homosexuality. Psychological Medicine 7: 427–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimura, Doreen. 1992. Sex differences in the brain. Scientific American 267 (September): 118–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolakowski, D., and Malina, R. M. 1974. Spatial ability, throwing accuracy, and man's hunting heritage. Nature 251: 410–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewontin, Richard. 1991. Biology as ideology. Concord, Ont.: Anansi Press.Google Scholar
Lienhard, Gustav E. 1992. How cells absorb glucose. Scientific American 266 (January): 86–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mazur, Allan. 1985. A biosocial model of status in face‐to‐face primate groups. Social Forces 64: 377–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazur, A., and Lamb, T. 1980. Testosterone, status, and mood in human males. Hormones and Behavior 14: 236–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newmark, Stephen R., et al. 1979. Gonadotropin, estradiol, and testosterone profiles in homosexual men. American Journal of Psychiatry 136: 767–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Pillard, Richard C., et al. 1974. Plasma testosterone levels in homosexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior 3: 453–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rose, Robert M., Bernstein, Edwin S., and Gordon, Thomas P. 1975. Consequences of social conflict on plasma testosterone levels in rhesus monkeys. Psychosomatic Medicine 37: 50–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosser, Phyllis, with the staff of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. 1987. Sex bias in college admissions tests: Why women lose out. 2d ed. Cambridge, MA: National Center for Fair and Open Testing.Google Scholar
Rudner, Richard. 1953. The scientist qua scientist makes value judgements. Philosophy of Science 20: 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiavi, Raul C., and White, Daniel. 1976. Androgens and male sexual function: A review of human studies. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 2: 214–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sells, Lucy W. 1980. The mathematics filter and the education of women and minorities. In Women and the mathematical mystique. See Lynn H. Fox, Linda Brody, and DianneTobin 1980.Google Scholar
Starka, L., Al, Et. 1975. Plasma testosterone in male transexuals and homosexuals. Journal of Sex Research 11: 134–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starkey, P., and Cooper, R. G. Jr. 1980. Perception of numbers by human infants. Science 210: 1033–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Starkey, P., Spelke, E. S., and Gelman, R. 1983. Detection of intermodal numerical correspondences by human infants. Science 222: 179–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Starkey, P. 1990. Numerical abstraction by human infants. Cognition 36: 97–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teitelbaum, Phyllis. 1989. Feminist theory and standardized testing. In Gender/body/knowledge: Feminist reconstructions of being and knowing, ed. Jaggar, Alison M. and Bordo, Susan R.New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Weisfeld, Glenn E. 1993. Social status and values in traditional Arab culture. In Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality I: A comparative biosocial analysis, ed. Ellis, Lee. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Williams, Christina L., Barnett, Alison M., and Meck, Warren H. 1990. Organizational effects of early gonadal secretions on sexual differentiation in spatial memory. Behavioral Neuroscience 104: 84–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wordsworth, William. 1807. Ode: Intimations of immortality from recollections of early childhood.CrossRefGoogle Scholar