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Comment by ThomPete | Hacker News Reader

Why do you have to make up something which wasn't said to have an argument?

Women do make different choices we know that for a fact. Women aren't tech nerds as much as men are we know that for a fact. Women start far fewer companies than men we know that for a fact.

We also know that women score way higher grades in school which we also know for a fact doesn't matter in real life.

So maybe women (in general) are just prioritizing life differently. That doesn't mean they aren't as intelligent, smart etc.

If you can't make your argument without pushing for strawmen then you don't have one yourself.

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It was said, that's the point. Claim that women aren't as good, is claiming they're stupid. Claiming they don't want it is claiming they're lazy.

It's just trying being polite about it. It's still an irrational bias, no matter how you dress it up.

No it's the same and if you believe that you are wrong.

There is a world of difference between someone having spent their entire life coding and someone only starting at university. Or someone having learned to draw from the age of 5 and someone who starts way later in life. That applies to men as to women.

Being not as good is about experience and knowledge having put in the hours. It is not about intelligence.

That is preposterous. What if they're just more interested in other things? Why do you assume a priori that men and women share the same interests internally? What evidence do you have which suggests this? OR are you just making an assumption because it seems "unsexist"?

Women make up 75% of pediatricians. If I say that this is because men aren't as good at pediatrics, am I saying that men are stupid?

No, you're stupid because you're using an example that's a biological function primarily to do with women.

Then consider a different intellectual profession dominated by women. 78% of publishers in the U.S. are women.[1] If I say that this is due to an innate differences rather than sexism against men in the publishing industry, am I saying that men are bad readers and stupid?

[1] http://blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/where-is-the-diversity-...

Also, can you clarify what you mean when you state that pediatrics is "an example that's a biological function primarily to do with women." Are you stating that women are innately (in other words, due to their gender) better suited to administering healthcare to minors as compared to men?

Just because women are the ones who birth children doesn't mean that I brought up "an example that's a biological function primarily to do with women".

64% of practicing gynecologists are men, but only women have vaginas.

You don't have to give birth to children to be a pediatrician or a gynecologist.

What's irrational is blindly assuming performance and interests must be equal across the sexes, in defiance of all evidence or reason. Every factor we're able to objectively measure - height, weight, life expectancy, test scores - shows significant differences (in terms of distribution and averages) between men and women. It's absurd to assume that somehow we're magically equally suitable (again, on a large, statistical scale) for all jobs.

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