The Paula Principle

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Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More

Jane Eyre

I went recently to Jane Eyre at the National.  It's one of those productions that leave me in awe of the imaginative qualities of some of our producers - a wonderful blending of genres, with dance and energetic movement reinforcing and animating the story line.  The generous space at the National was put to excellent use.  The picture below illustrates how simple frames were used rapidly and effectively to, well, frame the story. The education of women is one of the recurrent themes: Jane's own harsh schooling, and then her efforts as a personal tutor.  Of course this seems a world away from educational practices today.  And yet I'm left…
Read More

A WEF graph sums up the PP

In a previous post I drew on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Report.  The Report seems only now to have been released, and has hit the headlines.   There's a lot in it, but the graph below sums up, to a large extent, what the Paula Principle is all about.  It shows how, across 144 countries, women have caught up with men on education (and, in many countries, surpassed them, though the GGR methodology doesn't allow them to show this) but on the economic front the picture is very different. In fact, as the analysis (but not the graph) shows, on the economic dimension the overall picture is not only one…
Read More

Universal Credit and the dominance of the full-time model

Universal Credit must be high up on the list of policy initiatives which begin with a laudable goal and end up pointing in the wrong direction. The goal of simplification, streamlining the  mad proliferation of benefits, is obviously desirable, but there is increasing evidence on the potentially devastating impact it will have on the more marginal members of society. Most of the recent press attention has concentrated on the impact of the 6-week delays in payments on families that have no resources to fall back on.  But now more of us are becoming aware of other implications - see the powerful piece by Pilgrim Tucker in the Guardian .  I'm…
Read More

Social mobility

Some familiar issues but also some progress over the last decade - these are the headlines from a useful new report by the Resolution Foundation for the Social Mobility Commission. The report looks at low pay over the last decade and beyond, dividing people into 3 main groups: the stuck (who have stayed throughout in low pay, i.e. below 2/3 of the median wage); cyclers, who have moved in and out of low pay;  and escapers, who have moved out of low pay and stayed there for at least the last 3 years. Stuck is obviously where you don't want to be.  The good news is that the proportion of…
Read More

Inferior

is a book by Angela Saini which certainly does not live down to its title. The sub-title is How Science Got Women Wrong....and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, and it's an excellent, very accessible, account of the assumptions that lie behind much of the research on sex and gender differences. I speak with zero scientific authority, but the book seems to me to represent a very well-balanced approach to a range of issues that are often highly tendentious: differential brain size, the biological base of cooperative work, and domination, amongst others.  Saini never shouts, she just covers the ground, making it clear how our understanding has developed and where…
Read More

So the gap is growing…

International and national evidence  confirms that we cannot absolutely not assume continuing progress towards fair recognition of the value of women's competences. A recent blog by Laura Liswood drew my attention to the World Economic Forum's  Global Gender Gap Report for 2016.  This is a complex, massively informative operation - a treasure trove which sorts countries by regions and income levels, along four main dimensions: Education Health Economic participation Political empowerment. The overall conclusion starkly confirms the Paula Principle, at a global level: On average, the 144 countries covered in the Report have closed 96% of the gap in health outcomes between women and men, unchanged since last year, and more than…
Read More

Reports and misreports: the link is nursing

Two items, linked by nursing.  The first is a report in The Guardian that Anne Milton, the minister for women, has criticised Sir Philip Hampton for saying that the reason for the much-debated gender pay gap at the BBC is that women had "let it happen" by not doing enough asking.  Sir Philip is not just your run-of-the-mill businessman; he is leading an important review into the role of women in business, so his views matter. Ms Milton took exception to the remark, and rightly so.  Sir Philip's defence is that he was simply acknowledging differences in behaviour, but it was to say the least a careless phrase.  Ms Milton…
Read More

Women After All

Melvin Konner has written a highly original book, with an unusual message.  It pursues a similar theme to the Paula Principle, but much more broadly and with a completely different level of expertise. The subtitle of Women After All  is 'sex, evolution and the end of male supremacy'.  Konner predicts - and advocates - the future supremacy of women.  He opens with a quite striking proposition: This is a book with a very simple argument: women are not equal to men; they are superior in many ways, and in most ways that will count in the future.  It is not just a matter of culture of upbringing, although both play their…
Read More

The PP put into reverse – or is it?

Results for A levels were published yesterday in the UK.  This is the first year to show the outcomes of the reforms introduced by Michael Gove, and the coverage beforehand verged on the hysterical:  would the rushed through reforms lead to a drop in achievement? In the event, the results were something of a damp squib - for the commentators, not for the students, of course.  There was a tiny uplift overall in the top grades.  But since Ofqual had intervened to ensure there would be no dramatic drop in the results, this was hardly an objective improvement. Maybe as a result, the headline-writers fixed on something else:  "Boys outperform…
Read More

Holiday reading 2,3 & 4: Being Wrong plus

I've been interested for some time in our capacity for self-deception (including my own), and so was intrigued by a book title, Being Wrong.  Kathryn Schulz makes a lively case for being more relaxed about the errors we make, and argues positively that it's only by risking being wrong that we get to empathise with each other.  She has a lot of perceptive things to say about certainty, e.g. Our dislike of doubt is a kind of emotional agoraphobia.  Uncertainty leaves us stranded in a universe that is too big, too open, too ill-defined. Overall, I think she tries to do too much with the argument, and doesn't provide us with…
Read More