The Battle of The Sexes once more

A recent report on rediff.com has found:

A study published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Intelligence analyzed 145 items from the Scholastic Assessment Test in 100,000 17- to 18-year-olds and found a male IQ advantage of 3.63 points.

I am not feminist, but, I just cannot digest this. I mean, they definitely have better things to spend their research time on. What do they aim to achieve with this? What possible advantage can we as humans, derive from their 'precious' conclusion that a dude is 3.63 points better than a girl.

An age old controversy

Such claims are not new at all. Wiki tells us that

"In Victorian England, for example, the philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that there were no differences between men and women, whereas the scientist Charles Darwin (in his Descent of Man) argued that women were by their nature inferior in respect to mental ability. Many of these early attempts were based on anecdotal data. However, some scientists, such as Paul Broca (1861), attempted to derive empirical results from various forms of anthropometry, namely the comparison of brain mass. With the development of psychology at the end of the nineteenth century, and the evolving focus on intelligence testing in the early twentieth century, further attempts were made by a variety of scientists to examine the mental differences between men and women. Leta Hollingworth argues that: Women were not permitted to realize their full potential, as they were confined to the roles of child rearing and housekeeping."

First of all, there is a serious flaw in the definition of 'Intelligence' that these researchers are using:

"...IQ tests do not measure all meanings of "intelligence", such as creativity."

Further, the IQs have been way over-rated. Very often, we find, that the person with a high IQ, is still not successful either socially or professionally. There is a lot more that goes into the making of a person than just some grey cells. The Emotional factor which essentially determines how well a person can deal with another person, thereby building useful relationships, has been conveniently ignored by these researchers.

It's high time, these 'researchers', get over their tendency to create sensationalism, and get down to some real research. What we need today, is a much better measure than IQ which can judge a person on both mental as well as emotional faculties.

What do they do with this research?

These studies have been used in the past to provide lesser salaries to women. Nothing positive has come out of this till now. If anything, these studies produce unnecessary biases at workplaces. Already, there have been many instances where women researchers are given less credit for the same kind of work.

As I said,I am not a feminist, I may even agree to Professor Lynn who says here:

“Men have larger brains than women by about 10 per cent and larger brains confer greater brain power, so men must necessarily be on average more intelligent than women.”

But, with all due respect, sir, an elephant's brain is much bigger than ours. What does that mean?