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Comment by Wolfenstein98k | Hacker News Reader

Many many people claim there is no inherent difference in men and women above the neck, and that any observed difference is purely culturally caused.

By extension, it could be eliminated in a single generated given total control of the socialisation and schooling process.

This is not a meme or a rare view - Steven Pinker wrote a book countering this worldview 20 years ago.

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I thought that I should have made a note about this in my comment, but I didn’t because the author declares that the article isn’t about the cause of these differences, or whether these are inherent differences. That’s why it’s strange for me. I think the discussion is about the inherent nature of these, and not whether these exist.

Western society has made a huge push for more women in specific industries. The impetus being discrimination against women has resulted in them being under represented.

The only way the above is logical is if there are no inherent differences between men and women. Otherwise, we have no way of determining how much disparity is from inherent factors and how much is from environmental. Put another way: if you believe female (or any race) under representation is caused by discrimination you should be able to define the correct level of representation if there was no discrimination (I have yet to see this number defined in any instance, which is concerning because there’s no way to measure impact or progress).

Given that we’re broadly implementing much policies is strong evidence that many believe there are no inherent differences.

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