Take this job and keep it.

Zhang (2007), in a report for Statistics Canada reported that Canadian women were now no more likely to quit a job than men. The data analyzed were from the Longitudinal Worker File (LWF), an ongoing survey of a 10% sample of Canadian workers. In 1984, 5.5% of Canadian men quit their jobs, compared to 7.0% of women, but by 1994, the women's quitting rate had dropped to 5.6% while men's quit rate remained stable. In 2002, 7.6% of men and 7.7% of women had quit their jobs. While the study suggests that maternity leave is a major factor (4.2% of women took temporary maternity leave in 2002), it does not say whether Canadian legislation has changed the availability of maternity leaves during the period studied. The study also does not attempt to explain the dramatic rise in both men's and women's quit rates between 1994 and 2002.

In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a similar tool to the LWF, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY). NSLY data is collected from a "nationally representative" cohort. (12,686 in 1979, and 9,000 for the 1997 cohort). Royalty (1998) concluded from NLSY-79 data that gender differences in voluntary job-to-job and job-to-unemployment mobility were due to the behaviour of less-educated women. The differences in job mobility were significantly different for less educated women than from more educated women, and men in both categories.

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I never quit a job for pregnancy and never missed a day of work or school due to menstrual issues, but thinking about this article, I realize that I did quit a job to follow a lover. It seems like many of the heterosexual couples I know relocate based on the man's job prospects more readily than they do for the woman's job prospects. When the man is making more money than the woman, increased priority to his job seems to make financial sense, but if the woman's income is hampered by increased job leaving, then what does that prove?

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Men's intuition

What is intuition? Wikipedia defines it as "immediate cognition without the use of rational processes." Intuition seems to be defined by its opposites. In the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), "Intuition" is in opposition to sensing. In Allinson-Hayes Cognitive Style Index (CSI), an intuitiive style is defined in opposition to an analytical one. Rogers and Wiseman (2006) interviewed 50 self-described "high intuition" people to better define this amorphous concept. They found that these people ascribed their intuition to either psychic, spiritual, or psychological mechanisms, and could not think of a time when their "gut feeling" had failed.

Is one sex more intuitive? In unpublished results, Richard Wiseman (of Rogers and Wiseman, above) found that women described themselves as "highly intuitive" more often than men, but did not score any better at determining the difference between real and faked smiles (Guardian, 4/12/05). Slightly more men than women are estimated to be "intuitive" on the MBTI (2003). The CSI repeatedly finds that men are more intuitive (e.g. 2003 review, 2004 experiment). However, Burke and Miller (2005) suggest that women may suppress intuitive decision-making in response to stereotypes.

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My partner and I have recently rewatched Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, which means I have had the opportunity to be reminded of the "I have a bad feeling about this" gag.[launch Google Video] Obviously, Lucas knows the score about men's intuition. Of the 7 occurences shown in the Google video collage, only one is Leia, and one is C-3P0, who is at very least the femme in his relationship with R2-D2.
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Do you want me?

Abbey and Melby (1986) found that males perceived more sexual intent than females in both ambiguous and nonambiguous nonverbal situations. Levesque et al (2006) also found that men attributed more sexual interest after brief interaction than women, but that women tended to generalize attraction to positive personality characteristics more than men. Levesque et al also found that masculine women tended to sexualize opposite-sex interactions more than feminine women, but there were no differences between "masculine" and "feminine" men (rated using the BSRI).

Levesque et al did not provide the ages or recruitment methods of their participants, nor was I able to find this information about Abbey and Melby's experiments, although later studies by Abbey (e.g. 1987, 1995) use college student samples. Also, no studies seem to have been done to assess the level of sexual intent inferred by gay men and lesbians in same or opposite sex pairings.

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In my experience, men assume no one is hitting on them, and women assume everyone is hitting on them. Obviously, this is an oversimplification. I've known and dated guys who were supremely arrogant and women who were painfully self-conscious. However, I still found that the arrogance in men tended to translate to thinking they would get a positive response to flirtation, and the self-deprecating women assumed that the flirtation was non-serious, or sexual only. It's a self-fulfilling observation in my case. I tend to assume that no one is flirting with me because they see me as male, and wonder if they're seeing me as something else if they make their intentions known.

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Why do women fall?

Falling injuries are a serious health risk in elderly populations, and are more prevalent in women. Therefore, several studies have examined whether there is a difference in posture control and balance between the genders. Schieppati et al (!999) found that healthy men and women were equally able to accurately assess the magnitude of their own body sway with their eyes closed. Bryant et al (2005) found no gender differences in balance performance in a group of healthy adults approaching retirement. Teasdale et al (1993) proposed that reduced sensory information (as with degrading eyesight and hearing) may explain the prevalence of postural difficulties in older populations. In contrast, Schultz et al (1997) suggests that muscle strength is the factor which puts women and older adults at higher risk of falling injuries.

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Many of you may remember the "I've fallen, and I can't get up" ads, which appeared in a U.S. commercial in the early 1990's. As a teenager, I found those ads hysterically funny. The harder it gets for me to rise from a prone or sitting position, the less funny they get. I haven't noticed any difference in my balance since transition. I'm still a klutz. My muscles do seem more responsive, and I suspect that Schultz et al may be onto something with that factor. However, I was surprised that I didn't see any studies examining bone strength vs. injury severity, or analysis of the likelihood of living to a fragile age, both of which would seem to put women disproportionately at risk.

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Getting attention

Biederman and Faraone (2004) found higher rates of inattention in girls with ADHD, and higher rates of behavioral problems in boys, consistent with Gaub and Carlson's 1997 review, which we looked at in "Are Boys Dumb?" (8/28/06). The higher rates of inattention in ADHD-diagnosed girls probably relate to the higher level of dysfunction required for referral in the absence of behavioral problems. The results of Graetz et al's 2006 study of Australian students seem to support this, and find very little difference in treatment response that can not be explained by differing diagnostic methods.

This is especially troubling considering that ADHD seems to be co-morbid with many other issues. Biederman and Faraone (2004, above) also found that ADHD was a significant risk factor for alcohol/substance dependence in women but not in men, even though the "age of onset of ADHD and SUDs[dependencies] are separated by at least a decade." Graetz et al (2006, above) also found higher rates of depression in ADHD girls versus boys. Seldman (2006) found significant correlations between ADHD and executive function deficits, but the relationship was unclear. Kessler et al (2006) found substantial comorbidity between adult ADHD and many other DSM-IV disorders, especially mood disorders and substance use, but their screening turned up significantly higher rates of adults ADHD in males, despite not working from a referred sample.

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I am trying to catalog the people I know who have adult ADHD, and they seem fairly evenly divided on gender, as well on whether they're self-diagnosed or doctor-referred. While Biederman and Faraone seem confident that the ADHD diagnosed in girls is the same syndrome being diagnosed in boys, I'm not so sure. Then again, I'm very much not sure about the treatment of ADHD as I've seen it implemented. Watching my sister and friends struggle with the side effects of ADHD drugs was painful, and they never seemed to be doing much good, but I was too young to really tell. In college, it seemed like a lot of the people I knew were on Ritalin, but it wasn't clear which of them had a prescription.

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The BEM sex-role inventory

Many of the studies that study gender take sex-role into account, and measure a subject's "masculinity" or "femininity" using a psychological tool called the "Bem Sex Role Inventory." (BSRI) The inventory was created by Sandra Ruth Lipsitz Bem (currently at Cornell) in 1976. Generally, it is a set of up to 60 personality characteristics which subjects rate on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "never" to "always", with some characteristics defined as "masculine" (e.g. independent, athletic, forceful, analytical) and others as "feminine" (e.g. cheerful, shy, flatterable, soft-spoken) -- subjects generate a masculinity and a femininity score. Much of the test was created and validated using an American collegiate population.

However, the test has not been updated since 1981. Holt and Ellis (1998) suggest that changing gender perceptions in culture may be weakening the test's validity. Choi and Fuqua (2003) summarized results from 23 factor analyses of the BSRI, and found that differences in the factor analysis emerged when using different populations, as well as finding more complexity in the factors defined as masculine versus those defined as feminine. Konrad and Harris (2002) found that European American women in the urban Northeast rated only 10% of the presented items as differentially preferable for men and women, compared to European American men in the urban Northeast and African American men in the South, who gave the most "traditional ratings."

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If you're curious about how you would score on the BSRI, a dumbed-down version is available at OKCupid (Bem Sex Inventory Test). I scored "Undifferentiated" with 43 masculine and 43 feminine (and a picture of Richard Simmons). I recognize that I have a strong, traditionally masculine bias in my preference for personality traits (e.g. analytical > compassionate) so it's difficult for me to give objective feedback about this measure. One of the greatest complaints about this test is that it is confounded by "social desirability" -- people may feel compelled to give answers that feel appropriate, rather than accurate.

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Big-hearted

Men's arteries are bigger than women's, even after correcting for height and weight, according to Osterweil (2007) on MedPageToday.com. Osterweil cites two articles from this month's issue of the journal Circulation (Milicent et al,2007; Andersen & Pepine, 2007) which examine gender differences in women's recovery from acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks). Women die more often than men after heart attacks, but Osterweil feels these studies indicate that this is because "they are older and sicker when these events occur."

Although Osterweil points out that male-to-female transsexuals do have a reduction in their arterial size (presumably as a result of hormones), New et al (1997) found that vascular function was improved to be similar to cisgendered (non-transsexual) women's levels. Conversely Polderman et al (1993) found that endothelin (a vasoconstricting peptide) levels are similar in transsexual and cisgendered men, and in transsexual and cisgendered women. These results suggest that sex hormone levels may play a pivotal role in cardiac health.

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There is some history of heart disease in my family, but honestly cancer is a bigger killer for us. Still, my doctors tend to watch me fairly carefully for signs of cardiac and vascular problems, because testosterone is known to be a risk factor for these issues. My cholesterol levels have gone up, as has my blood pressure, but still well within normal levels for a man of my age. Often it feels like my doctors expect me to stay within the healthy ranges for both sexes simultaneously, whether or not they intersect.

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Defining Intimacy

"Everyone knows" that men are either bad at intimacy (e.g. AZ Republic 2005), or define intimacy so much differently than women that it's not even the same concept (Elmore 2004). Salas and Ketzenberger (2004) found significant gender differences on average self-reported intimacy in same-sex relationships, but not in romantic relationships. Fehr (2004) found that men and women agree on the prototypical patterns that indicate intimacy (such as emotional support and self-disclosure) but women seem to place more importance on these factors than men do. Roy et al (2000) found equal levels of trust in men's and women's same-sex friendships, but found that women rated the importance of spending transitional periods together higher (both positive and negative events). Very few studies look at opposite-sex friendships, but Reeder (2003) gender role (masculinity or femininity) affects friend-gender-preference, but that this has no effect on friendship closeness.

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My partner notes that we have ended up with a largely male circle of friends lately. He has traditionally had more female friends than male friends. Strangely, I feel like I have more female friends than ever, but note that we don't actually spend much time in person together - we "hang out" online. In person, the guys show up more. I have theorized that this is because the two main social event types we hold are "game nights" and sports viewing, but I have yet to explain why women don't more consistently attend game nights.

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The problem of fairness in sport

In a position paper released in December (and no longer available on the website), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) calling for a ban on the use of male practice players in women's sports (ESPN, 12/12/06). ESPN quotes the committee: "The message to female student-athletes seems to be 'you are not good enough to make our starters better, so we need to use men instead.'" However, the starters in question seem to agree with this assessment. Courtney Paris of the Colorado State women's basketball team said to the Denver Post (2/13/07): "The average girl rec player in the gym can't compete with us. The guys are much better. They help us a lot."

Henry and Comeaux (1999) suggest that the "unfulfilled promise" of egalitarianism in coed sports (specifically soccer, where male players tend to dominate in mixed leagues), reflect the failure to reach equality in American society at large. Wachs (2005), on the other hand, suggests that women's performance in coed sports (specifically softball) causes gender stereotypes to be "simultaneously challenged and reinvigorated." Interestingly, French soccer referrees (male) consistently rated female soccer players as more aggressive than male soccer players in a study by Coulomb-Cabagno et al (2005).

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My interest level in sports was fickle as a teenager. My nuclear family was fairly vehemently anti-sport (being deeply ensconced in geek culture) but also vehemently feminist (ditto). Being small and lazy was the tie-breaker, and I never participated in a team sport outside of Phys. Ed. class, which I was consistently on the verge of failing (it was graded largely on attendance, and I missed a lot of school). Spectator sports never made much sense to me until my current relationship, where my partner is an avid hockey fan. His enthusiasm(and, I suspect, my testosterone) have really increased my enjoyment of watching sports, but I still haven't gotten motivated to play any. While testosterone has increased my muscle mass, and seems to have reduced my fear of failure, I'm still very nervous about participating in any pick-up game. For one thing, no one ever taught me how to throw. My partner's sister, for what it's worth, throws a mean spiral.

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Desk Hygiene

The author's filthy workspace

In a study commissioned by the Clorox corporation, Charles Gerba (2007) of the University of Arizona tested surfaces in the workplace for levels of bacteria. The surprising result: women's workspaces were germier than men's. The study looked at phones, keyboards, mice, desk surfaces, and pens, among other surfaces. Of these, men only out-germed women on the desk surfaces. In an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC, 1/21/07), Gerba warns against depending on new "anti-bacterial" office products to cut down on the spread of infection: the products are rarely tested for efficacy. In the same article, Gerba says that hand sanitizers have been "proven to cut absenteeism way down." Indeed, muliple studies (e.g. Hammond et al (2000), White et al, 2001) suggest that hand sanitizers do reduce school absenteeism, but see Meadows and LeSaux (2004) for a critique of these findings. However, CDC guidelines (2002) still recommend the use of alcohol-based handrubs in health care settings.

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I'm a slob. I eat at my desk. I hardly ever clean it. I don't throw out my coffee cups. I routinely hold pens in my mouth (and I catch myself doing it with other people's pens on a regular basis.) In short, I'm a walking science fair project. However, I still put this study in the category that my partner calls "FUD": fear, uncertainty, and doubt. While I appreciate Gerba's plea for people to stay home when they're sick, I'm highly doubtful that using anti-microbial phone wipes will significantly improve my health.

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Stress and Romance

This is the type of chocolate box that I
have to get, or I throw a tantrum.
They're generally made by Russell Stover.
I don't even like their chocolate that much.

Valentine's Day can be a stressful time for both men and women, especially in younger populations. Davenport and Birtle (1990) found that associations with "parasuicide" (non-fatal self-harm) were even higher for Valentine's day than for Christmas. This effect was much stronger in adolescents, but no gender differences were reported. Morse and Neuberg (2004) found that college students were more likely to break up in the period around Valentine's Day than at other times. Contrary to Morse and Neuberg's hypothesis, there was no significant effect of gender vs. relationship satisfaction during this period.

Despite the lack of gender differences on parasuicidality and relationship satisfaction, Ogletree (1993) found the exceedingly unsurprising result that women were more likely than men to indicate that Valentine's Day was important to them, and that femininity (vs. masculinity) was a predictive factor in the rated importance of Valentine's Day for both men and women. Women and feminine persons were also more likely to give gifts and cards than men and masculine persons. However, the reception of gifts seems to divide differently: Clarke et al (2005) found that the receiver was more likely to place importance on the brand name than the giver, regardless of the gender of these parties.

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Speaking of name-brands, I have a deep seated issue with Valentine's Day that I've been struggling with for years. When I was a kid, my father always got my mother a heart-shaped box of chocolates with lace on it. Through trial, error, and inappropriate tantrums, I have discovered that I have to get a similar box every year, and that this effect has not diminished with transition. I hate it in myself, but I've found it easier to specify what I want than to break the association.

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Designing for Gender

When it comes to website design, men and women may have very different tastes. Moss et al (2005) found that men preferred straight lines, few colors, and formal language and typeface far more than women did. Moss et al also found that men preferred websites designed by men, and women preferred sites designed by women. However, Moss et al's sample was entirely made of students from the University of Glamorgan (UK). A study by S.J. Simon (2000) suggests that the degree of difference between men's and women's preferences for website design varies by culture. In Simon's study, men and women from "collectivist" cultures (such as Latin America and Asia) showed very little difference between the sexes, whereas men and women from "individualist" cultures (such as North America and Europe) showed much greater difference.

Differences in design preferences may be related to familiarity with the internet. Dholakia et al (2003) point out that women's internet usage varies by culture parallel to per capita income. Simon and Peppas (2005) found that men reported more positive attitudes towards websites in general. However, these attitudes may not reflect on the utility of internet applications; Astleitner amd Steinberg (2005) found that gender effects were insignificant on all aspects of web-based learning.

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One of the biggest personality conflicts I've ever encountered at work came about over the design of a party invitation. The woman who designed the first draft wanted to use multiple clip-art images, "Word-Art" and bright colors; I wanted to use plain text and a simple line border. We finally compromised by using black text printed on top of a tropical photo scene, but the fact that we spent a week debating it still cracks me up.

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His and Hers Mitochondria

Eva Emerson, in Medical News Today (2/11/07) reports on John Tower's (2006) model for explaining aging and the mortality gap between the sexes. Tower's work with drosophila (fruit flies) suggested that sexula differentiation might come at great cost in terms of aging. Mitochondria seem to be less functional in older fruit flies and mammals, with sex-specific effects. Yan et al (2004) found mitochondrial aging in monkey cardiac cells was accelerated in males compared to females. Vina et al (2006) suggest that estrogen may have a protective effect, by "up-regulation of longevity-associated genes." Ballard and Whitlock (2004 review) point out that much mitochondrial modeling at this point is speculative. Ballard and Whitlock discuss weaknesses in the current data, and in the generalizability of animal models to humans.

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I'm still baffled by the mortality gap. Women seem to be more prone to disease, yet outlive men on average. Social theories about fewer violent deaths or lower risk jobs make some degree of sense to me, but considering the other biological costs of accomodating pregnancy, the genetic theories just confuse me. On that note, any comments on my possible misinterpretation of today's results is welcomed.

However, I have to say that the phrase "[estrogen] cannot be administered to males because of its powerful feminizing effects" (Yan et al, 2006) caused me a bit of a chuckle. My male-to-female transsexual friends are constantly complaining about how ineffective estrogen is in comparison to testosterone, because estrogen supplements seem to achieve very little feminization without the complementary testosterone blockers, whereas my testosterone shots shut down my estrogen production on their own.

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Testosterone and Pair-bonding

Burnham et al (2003) found that men in current committed relationships (whether married or unmarried) had 21% lower saliva testosterone levels than single men. Gray et al (2004) confirmed these results, and found that this effect was more pronounced in afternoon and evening samples of testosterone levels than in morning samples. However, it is not clear whether partnering causes lower T levels, or whether lower T levels increase the chance of partnering.

Van Anders and Watson (2006) found that single people with lower testosterone levels in Phase 1 of their study were more likely than high-testosterone subjects to be partnered at follow-up (6+ months later). Interestingly, van Anders and Watson also looked at testosterone levels in women, and took sexuality into account. They found that lower testosterone levels were associated with partnered status in heterosexual men, and non-heterosexual women, but not with heterosexual women or non-heterosexual men.

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I've been lucky enough to be in one stable, committed relationship since before I began injecting testosterone. This makes me fairly rare among the transmen I know. Transition is necessarily a stressful, self-absorbed period in a person's life, and this tends to make maintaining a relationship difficult. The suddenness of the hormonal changes (in the case of ftms, the simultaneous onset of menopause and second puberty) can make the most trivial interactions difficult, as well. Therefore, I doubt the effect of hormone administration on the relationships of transsexuals is a good comparison model for hormone levels in the general population.

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Dear Sir or Madam

Hearing a stranger's voice, we tend to automatically assign the voice a gender. Belin et al (2004) suggest that perception of identity data gleaned from vocal cues may have processing similar to that for face recognition. While the perception of the speaker gender has often been characterized as a "right-brain" function, Schirmer and Kotz (2006) point out that neuroimaging studies fail to provide consistent support for this theory, and suggest a bilateral model for vocal processing on several facets of information. Lee et al (2000) found that rater identification of a computer-generated voice's gender was reliable between raters, and also that people tended to "like" voices of their own gender better, but raters of both sexes found male voices more "convincing." Interestingly, Lattner et al (2006) found stronger brain activation in reaction to female and artificially produced voices than in reaction to male voices. This effect was true for both male and female listeners equally.

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I can't speak to how differently people react to my voice since it changed. My confidence and vocal habits have also changed enough through practice that there are too many confounds to make a conclusion, even if I had noticed a difference. However, one thing that's easy to notice is the way people identify my gender over the phone. I got "ma'amed" this morning for the first time in a while, and it amused me, because I'm aware that I don't get read as female over the phone any more often than any of my other male friends with tenor voices.

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You Smell

Sex differences in gray matter (GM) concentration, from
Garcia-Falgueras et al (2006)



Yellow/Red areas represent greater concentration of GM
compared to the other sex. Top: Areas of higher male
GM concentration. Bottom: Higher concentration in females.

Garcia-Falgueras et al (2006) used MRI to examine sexual dimorphism in the olfactory system, using a sample of 40 men and 51 women. Garcia-Falgueras et al found the expected differences in total volume, but no differences in ratios of gray matter, white matter, and CSF. Differences were detected in the concentration of gray matter (see image). The authors suggest that (despite the relative weakness of human olfaction compared to other mammals) smell plays an important role in sexual interaction and function in humans. Garcia-Falgueras et al also suggest that androgens in the brain may create these dimorphisms for humans differently than similar dimorphisms in other mammals.

As mentioned on Monday ("Picky Eaters"), there is some evidence that women have more sensitive senses of smell than men do. Kate Fox's "Smell Report" points out that many of these assertions do not take menstrual cycle stage into account, or properly account for the fact that women are only more sensitive to some smells, but not others. Landis et al (2004) found that certain systemic health disorders (liver diseases, certain cancers, but not cardiovascular disease) could be linked to olfactory dysfunction, so sex differences in smell sensitivity may be confounded with frequency differences in other health issues.

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My sense of smell drives far more of my behaviour than I'd like. One of the reasons that I enjoyed smoking early on was because it dampened my sense of smell, which was sort of a relief, having just moved to the city from the country. I adore Boston, but the streets aren't exactly paved with rose petals. After over 10 years of pushing carcinogens through my nose, my sense of smell is still pretty damn good, but nowhere near where it used to be. I haven't noticed any difference since transition, except that I'm stuffy less of the time, but I suspect that's because I'm happier, and tend to be healthier.

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Happy Workers

Despite ample evidence that women tend to have worse jobs, studies find that women report equal or higher levels of job satisfaction as men. While many studies seem to focus on the women's relative happiness, asking "Why Aren't Women More Dissatisfied?" (Hodson 1989) or "Why are women so happy at work?" (Clark 1997), few studies seem to examine why men are so unhappy. An HR Solutions 2007 survey suggests that job fit and career development are predictors of job satisfaction among women, whereas feeling included in decisions and senior management's concern for employees were predictors for men. These sorts of results suggest the hypothesis that locus of control would have a differential effect on men's and women's job satisfaction; however, Muhonen and Torkelson's 2004 study examining this relationship had mixed results.

Sousa-Poza and Sousa-Poza (2003) suggest that gender differences in job satisfaction are decreasing. Hodson (1989) suggested that when job characteristics, personal expectations, and family responsibility are controlled, these differences shrink. Andrew Clark (1987) goes further by pointing out that young, educated professional women and women in male-dominated fields do not show a boost in job satisfaction, which he suggests is due to similar job expectations to their male counterparts.

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Hodson also suggests that men may be more willing to "verbalize dissatisfaction"; however, we discussed the socialization of complaining in December ("Valid Complaints" 12/1/06), and found that in couples interaction, women were more likely to complain. This suggests to me that the acceptability of complaints is situationally dependent. I personally have a bad habit of bitching about my jobs. It's bitten me in the ass more than once. However, I don't think my level of complaining has decreased since my transition, but I do think people are less offended by it.

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Picky eaters

Food neophobia, or an unwillingness to try new foods, affects males and females of all ages. Robert A. Frank, of the University of Cincinnati, who has studied food neophobia for over a decade, suggests that the difference between those who try new foods and those who don't is one of attitude, not sensory sensitivity (J. Fox, Psychology Today, 1999). Sensory sensitivity might be expected to create sex differences in food neophobia, as some evidence suggests (e.g. Brand and Millot, 2001) that women have more sensitive olfaction than men. Hobden and Pliner (1995) found no effect for gender on food neophobia or neophilia (the seeking out of novel foods). Nordin et al (2004) also found no sex differences between adult men and women on food neophobia, but did that food rejection and aversion was more common in women than in men. Nordin et al also concluded that women are more sensitive to disgust than men.

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I was very surprised by the equality on this area, because the only picky eaters I can recall are male, whether adults or children. Of course, this is probably mostly observer bias, since the eating habits I've examined closest belong to my romantic partners, who have more often been male. I've had to create lists for almost every boyfriend I've ever had of the "Things He Will Not Eat." My own food neophobia has waxed and waned, but in general has decreased with age (as it does with most people). I nearly had a full-on tantrum the first time I was brought into an Ethiopian restaurant at the supposedly "adult" age of 24 (in fairness, I was also fresh off a plane and cranky already).

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Changing majors

While women are enrolling in traditionally male majors in increasing numbers, this doesn't address whether they persist in these fields. Beyer et al (2005) found that attitudes towards gender differences in Computer Science changed over time in CS majors and non-majors of bothe sexes. On the other hand, Huang et al (2000) found that women, once enrolled, were more likely to complete a science/engineering degree than their male counterparts, and that the factors that influence a student's entry into science/engineering did not differ between the sexes. Nauta et al (1999) concluded that, after controlling for ability, attributional style was the major predictor of women's persistence in engineering. Linn and Hyde (1989) found that differences in career access in mathematics were more robust and stable than differences in ability.

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My initial major in college was mathematics. In six months, I changed to theatre. I don't think this had anything to do with negative attitudes towards women in mathematics. If anything, I was rebelling by dropping out of math. I'm trying to remember who in my social circle changed majors; but I'm not thinking of anyone else offhand. However, everyone I knew who dropped out of college was male.

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On that note

Last week (1/26/07), we looked at gender differences in musical preferences. The quality of the sound may be a factor as well. McCown et al (1997) found that males displayed a greater preference for "enhanced bass" in music. Interestingly, Mary Ann Clawson (1999) notes that women are overrepresented as bass players in rock bands. Differences in the genders ability to hear certain frequencies may influence this; Jerger et al (1993) found that men (on average) displayed greater hearing loss over 1kHz, whereas women (on average) displayed more hearing loss below 1kHz.

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When I was a kid, it seemed like every adult in my life had hearing troubles. "You have to speak up to talk to grandma" and "You know I can't hear out of my right ear" were nearly as common statements as the prompting "what do you say?" But one factoid that got trotted out to me over and over again was the idea that adults couldn't hear high sounds as well as kids could, which prompted me to start speaking as low in my register as possible by the time I was eight or nine. This concept is part of the idea behind the "Mosquito" (NYT, 11/29/05), a sound supposedly inaudible to adults but annoying to teenagers, which has been co-opted as a "teacher-proof ringtone" (NPR, 5/26/06). Before anyone else says it: it seems that if women are evolutionarily built for monitoring children, then retaining higher-pitched hearing would be more important for them. However, my suspicion is that this probably has more to do with aging hearing loss versus occupational hearing loss. I would be interested to see results specifically from people who worked in high-noise factories for decades, and see if there's a gender difference there.

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