The Paula Principle

It’s not just OECD countries

The Paula Principle emerged for me from looking at OECD data. This shows conclusively how general the trend is for girls and women to do better than boys and men in education. But OECD countries are relatively wealthy, and not typical of all countries. I'm in Morocco at a meeting of the World Committe on Lifelong Learning. I've just learnt that girls here already outperform boys at the level of the baccalaureate. Moreover Faoud Chafiqi, a researcher who also works in the education ministry, reported that girls' aspirations for higher education are far stronger than boys. I assume, obviously, that the same tide is happening here as we have seen…
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end of man?

I went recently to the RSA to listen to Hanna Rosin presenting her book on The End of Man. The book has been widely publicised so you may know her main thesis: that women have overtaken men, leaving them out in the cold and lacking identity and a role. I have quite a lot of time for much of the argument, and I like the contrast - as a generalisation - between women as 'plastic' ie adaptable, and men as 'cardboard' ie not adaptable and in some sense soggy ( though I haven't read the book so don't know if she actually uses this term). Where I'd put up a…
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House husbandry and Cynthia Carroll

I said in my previous blog that in discussing the waste of female talent we should not focus all our attention on women at the top. And here I am immediately taking up the example of Cynthia Carroll, the CEO of Anglo-American who has just resigned. she is about as exceptional as it gets: not only CEO of a major FTSE company, but one in a sector notoriously male-dominated and (I imagine) macho in outlook at board level as well as (more reasonably) down the mines. So why comment on this? A journalist called me just now for a comment on the CC affair since he'd seen something from me…
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Welcome

Welcome to the Paula Principle site. I'd like the site - and the PP label - to help get a debate going on the mismatch between women's educational achievements and their rewards at work.  For me this is a matter of both economic efficiency and fairness. But it also brings a rather more complex dynamic to discussions of equality. (I'm not generally a 50:50 person on gender equality, for reasons I'll say something about on a later blog.)  My intention is to feed in arguments, facts, thoughts, mainly from the book I'm writing on the PP, and hope that this might prompt some reactions. Today's current item: in Saturday's Guardian Simon Goodley…
Read More

It’s not just OECD countries

The Paula Principle emerged for me from looking at OECD data. This shows conclusively how general the trend is for girls and women to do better than boys and men in education. But OECD countries are relatively wealthy, and not typical of all countries. I'm in Morocco at a meeting of the World Committe on Lifelong Learning. I've just learnt that girls here already outperform boys at the level of the baccalaureate. Moreover Faoud Chafiqi, a researcher who also works in the education ministry, reported that girls' aspirations for higher education are far stronger than boys. I assume, obviously, that the same tide is happening here as we have seen…
Read More

end of man?

I went recently to the RSA to listen to Hanna Rosin presenting her book on The End of Man. The book has been widely publicised so you may know her main thesis: that women have overtaken men, leaving them out in the cold and lacking identity and a role. I have quite a lot of time for much of the argument, and I like the contrast - as a generalisation - between women as 'plastic' ie adaptable, and men as 'cardboard' ie not adaptable and in some sense soggy ( though I haven't read the book so don't know if she actually uses this term). Where I'd put up a…
Read More

House husbandry and Cynthia Carroll

I said in my previous blog that in discussing the waste of female talent we should not focus all our attention on women at the top. And here I am immediately taking up the example of Cynthia Carroll, the CEO of Anglo-American who has just resigned. she is about as exceptional as it gets: not only CEO of a major FTSE company, but one in a sector notoriously male-dominated and (I imagine) macho in outlook at board level as well as (more reasonably) down the mines. So why comment on this? A journalist called me just now for a comment on the CC affair since he'd seen something from me…
Read More

Welcome

Welcome to the Paula Principle site. I'd like the site - and the PP label - to help get a debate going on the mismatch between women's educational achievements and their rewards at work.  For me this is a matter of both economic efficiency and fairness. But it also brings a rather more complex dynamic to discussions of equality. (I'm not generally a 50:50 person on gender equality, for reasons I'll say something about on a later blog.)  My intention is to feed in arguments, facts, thoughts, mainly from the book I'm writing on the PP, and hope that this might prompt some reactions. Today's current item: in Saturday's Guardian Simon Goodley…
Read More

It’s not just OECD countries

The Paula Principle emerged for me from looking at OECD data. This shows conclusively how general the trend is for girls and women to do better than boys and men in education. But OECD countries are relatively wealthy, and not typical of all countries. I'm in Morocco at a meeting of the World Committe on Lifelong Learning. I've just learnt that girls here already outperform boys at the level of the baccalaureate. Moreover Faoud Chafiqi, a researcher who also works in the education ministry, reported that girls' aspirations for higher education are far stronger than boys. I assume, obviously, that the same tide is happening here as we have seen…
Read More

end of man?

I went recently to the RSA to listen to Hanna Rosin presenting her book on The End of Man. The book has been widely publicised so you may know her main thesis: that women have overtaken men, leaving them out in the cold and lacking identity and a role. I have quite a lot of time for much of the argument, and I like the contrast - as a generalisation - between women as 'plastic' ie adaptable, and men as 'cardboard' ie not adaptable and in some sense soggy ( though I haven't read the book so don't know if she actually uses this term). Where I'd put up a…
Read More

House husbandry and Cynthia Carroll

I said in my previous blog that in discussing the waste of female talent we should not focus all our attention on women at the top. And here I am immediately taking up the example of Cynthia Carroll, the CEO of Anglo-American who has just resigned. she is about as exceptional as it gets: not only CEO of a major FTSE company, but one in a sector notoriously male-dominated and (I imagine) macho in outlook at board level as well as (more reasonably) down the mines. So why comment on this? A journalist called me just now for a comment on the CC affair since he'd seen something from me…
Read More

Welcome

Welcome to the Paula Principle site. I'd like the site - and the PP label - to help get a debate going on the mismatch between women's educational achievements and their rewards at work.  For me this is a matter of both economic efficiency and fairness. But it also brings a rather more complex dynamic to discussions of equality. (I'm not generally a 50:50 person on gender equality, for reasons I'll say something about on a later blog.)  My intention is to feed in arguments, facts, thoughts, mainly from the book I'm writing on the PP, and hope that this might prompt some reactions. Today's current item: in Saturday's Guardian Simon Goodley…
Read More

It’s not just OECD countries

The Paula Principle emerged for me from looking at OECD data. This shows conclusively how general the trend is for girls and women to do better than boys and men in education. But OECD countries are relatively wealthy, and not typical of all countries. I'm in Morocco at a meeting of the World Committe on Lifelong Learning. I've just learnt that girls here already outperform boys at the level of the baccalaureate. Moreover Faoud Chafiqi, a researcher who also works in the education ministry, reported that girls' aspirations for higher education are far stronger than boys. I assume, obviously, that the same tide is happening here as we have seen…
Read More

end of man?

I went recently to the RSA to listen to Hanna Rosin presenting her book on The End of Man. The book has been widely publicised so you may know her main thesis: that women have overtaken men, leaving them out in the cold and lacking identity and a role. I have quite a lot of time for much of the argument, and I like the contrast - as a generalisation - between women as 'plastic' ie adaptable, and men as 'cardboard' ie not adaptable and in some sense soggy ( though I haven't read the book so don't know if she actually uses this term). Where I'd put up a…
Read More

House husbandry and Cynthia Carroll

I said in my previous blog that in discussing the waste of female talent we should not focus all our attention on women at the top. And here I am immediately taking up the example of Cynthia Carroll, the CEO of Anglo-American who has just resigned. she is about as exceptional as it gets: not only CEO of a major FTSE company, but one in a sector notoriously male-dominated and (I imagine) macho in outlook at board level as well as (more reasonably) down the mines. So why comment on this? A journalist called me just now for a comment on the CC affair since he'd seen something from me…
Read More

Welcome

Welcome to the Paula Principle site. I'd like the site - and the PP label - to help get a debate going on the mismatch between women's educational achievements and their rewards at work.  For me this is a matter of both economic efficiency and fairness. But it also brings a rather more complex dynamic to discussions of equality. (I'm not generally a 50:50 person on gender equality, for reasons I'll say something about on a later blog.)  My intention is to feed in arguments, facts, thoughts, mainly from the book I'm writing on the PP, and hope that this might prompt some reactions. Today's current item: in Saturday's Guardian Simon Goodley…
Read More