Nature: Neuropsychopharmacology's (2009) most recent issue is having a special theme on the role of sex hormones in neuropsychopharmacology (NPP). Young and Becker's "Perspective" (2009) gives a brief summary of some of the background and highlights. For example, Young and Becker point out that although women are more prone to depression, SSRI antidepressants seem to work better for women as well (citing Kornstein et al, 2000, and Young et al, 2008).
Of particular interest is Schmidt et al's (2008) finding that sexual function was affected in both healthy men and women by artificially induced hypogonadism. Men's sexual function was able to be corrected by injected testosterone. However, it was not possible to correct sexual function to baseline in women by administration of exogenous hormones. As Young and Becker note: "there was no testosterone replacement, nor any combination of sex steroids, which would approach the normal hormonal milieu of women."
Okay, it's fair to say I'm biased in my selection of the "particularly interesting" article. I'm also probably biased in my interpretation. I love studies that say that a shot of testosterone is all it takes to make a "normal" male hormonal milieu. It's one of the reasons I'm often glad I'm a female-to-male (FTM) transsexual instead of vice versa. On the other hand, the MTFs have better surgical technology, so maybe it all balances out.
Honestly, mostly I'm just grateful I eventually figured it out, instead of staying miserable and lost.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Shopping & Spending
A press release from Wharton (U. of PA, 2007) describes research by Stephen J. Hoch about the differences in shopping styles between men and women. The study, called "Men Buy, Women Shop", appeared to confirm the stereotype that women view shopping as interpersonal while men view it as instrumental -- that is, a means to an end. Women listed "lack of help when needed" as their biggest shopping problem, while men listed "difficulty in finding parking close to the store's entrance" as the biggest issue. Even though this article is over a year old, it recently spawned "his and hers" articles at the financial web site Mint.Com, both by Laura Sullivan.
In "Girls Gone Shopping Wild" (12/17/08), Sullivan lists 6 things that women spend more money on than men, including grooming products and services, pets, and surprisingly, the lottery. Sullivan goes on to "set the record straight" in January with "Boys Gone Shopping Wild" (1/27/09), which lists 7 areas where men spend more: dining, drinking, sports tickets, and electronics. However, Sullivan may want to check her figures on that last item: according to Fast Company (2009), women purchase 57% of all consumer electronics, and influence the purchase of 90% of these purchases.
In my experience, men spend just as much time shopping as women, but they do the vast majority of that in the privacy of their own homes. Any time I've observed a man considering a major purchase, he's spent weeks ahead of time comparing product reviews and prices. Maybe this is part of some stereotypical-male-ego thing about needing to be an expert and not asking for help, but it doesn't strike me as a bad pattern. However, I haven't developed the patience or the appetite for it. As futile as it may be at that point, I'm more likely to read product reviews after I've already made a purchase.
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In "Girls Gone Shopping Wild" (12/17/08), Sullivan lists 6 things that women spend more money on than men, including grooming products and services, pets, and surprisingly, the lottery. Sullivan goes on to "set the record straight" in January with "Boys Gone Shopping Wild" (1/27/09), which lists 7 areas where men spend more: dining, drinking, sports tickets, and electronics. However, Sullivan may want to check her figures on that last item: according to Fast Company (2009), women purchase 57% of all consumer electronics, and influence the purchase of 90% of these purchases.
In my experience, men spend just as much time shopping as women, but they do the vast majority of that in the privacy of their own homes. Any time I've observed a man considering a major purchase, he's spent weeks ahead of time comparing product reviews and prices. Maybe this is part of some stereotypical-male-ego thing about needing to be an expert and not asking for help, but it doesn't strike me as a bad pattern. However, I haven't developed the patience or the appetite for it. As futile as it may be at that point, I'm more likely to read product reviews after I've already made a purchase.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Also: Thank you LiveJournal, for fixing the problem with the syndicated feeds! It's much appreciated!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Cycling Activations
Advances in brain imaging techniques over the past decade have made it possible to look at differences in men's and women's brains in new ways. Given the documented sex differences in brain activation during verbal tasks (see 3/11/08), Weis et al (2009) examined whether there were differences in womens' brain activation during different points in the menstrual cycle. This would seem likely, especially considering how hormone differences over the cycle seem to affect womens' decision-making processes (see 10/5/06).
In fact, Weis et al found that the women in their study showed differing levels of lateralization in brain activation over various points in their cycles. When women were menstruating (lowest levels of estradiol), they showed greater lateralization during the experimental task (a more "masculine" pattern). At the luteal phase (when estradiol levels are highest), both hemispheres were more equally activated.
A lot of the evidence for women's advantages in multi-tasking seems to be tied up in the lateralization of function argument (see 7/9/08). Men seem to "light up" one hemisphere of their brain at a time, while women seem to use both simultaneously. One theory for this has been greater ratios of white matter (connective brain tissue) to grey matter in adult women versus adult men (see 1/23/07). However, Weis et al suggest that sex hormones play a role in inhibiting these connections, making the difference in activation as functional as it is structural.
I feel like I ought to be able to speak to this from experience, but as I've often commented, it's pretty hard to extrapolate from a sample of one. What this does make me wonder about is the age groups used for "normals" in most of the fMRI studies we've looked at. What differences might the hormonal differences between a 20 year old man and a 35 year old man make? Penny asked last week whether pregnancy histories had been taken into account in a food-cravings brain study; it wasn't mentioned in the press release, so I couldn't answer, but I suspect it was not.
What I can speak to from experience is my bias that this study makes obvious. I definitely treat hormones as if they were as changeable as, say, hair color. I don't consider a hormonal difference "innate", because I've been managing my hormones, on and off, since I was 17 and first went on birth control pills. The general distribution of "male" vs. "female" hormones does seem to be semi-consistent, and biologically driven, but the vast changes these can create in behavior (even confined within "normal" ranges) make me question the utility of sex-based generalizations.
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In fact, Weis et al found that the women in their study showed differing levels of lateralization in brain activation over various points in their cycles. When women were menstruating (lowest levels of estradiol), they showed greater lateralization during the experimental task (a more "masculine" pattern). At the luteal phase (when estradiol levels are highest), both hemispheres were more equally activated.
A lot of the evidence for women's advantages in multi-tasking seems to be tied up in the lateralization of function argument (see 7/9/08). Men seem to "light up" one hemisphere of their brain at a time, while women seem to use both simultaneously. One theory for this has been greater ratios of white matter (connective brain tissue) to grey matter in adult women versus adult men (see 1/23/07). However, Weis et al suggest that sex hormones play a role in inhibiting these connections, making the difference in activation as functional as it is structural.
I feel like I ought to be able to speak to this from experience, but as I've often commented, it's pretty hard to extrapolate from a sample of one. What this does make me wonder about is the age groups used for "normals" in most of the fMRI studies we've looked at. What differences might the hormonal differences between a 20 year old man and a 35 year old man make? Penny asked last week whether pregnancy histories had been taken into account in a food-cravings brain study; it wasn't mentioned in the press release, so I couldn't answer, but I suspect it was not.
What I can speak to from experience is my bias that this study makes obvious. I definitely treat hormones as if they were as changeable as, say, hair color. I don't consider a hormonal difference "innate", because I've been managing my hormones, on and off, since I was 17 and first went on birth control pills. The general distribution of "male" vs. "female" hormones does seem to be semi-consistent, and biologically driven, but the vast changes these can create in behavior (even confined within "normal" ranges) make me question the utility of sex-based generalizations.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Academia-Life Balance
Mary Ann Mason, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education (2009), suggests that both male and female graduate students may be looking for a new model of academic life. The "University of California Doctoral Student Career and Life Survey" (see survey) asked 8,400 graduate students about their career plans (see Mason et al, 2009). 53% of women and 35% of men surveyed reported that they were "very concerned" about the family-friendliness of potential career paths. The number of students interested in pursuing academic careers declines over the course of graduate school: 30% for women and 20% of men.
Two of the top three reasons for "shifting career emphasis" were shared between men and wome (see PDF table 1 from Academe article): "Other life interests" topped the women's list (48%W:35%M) while "Negative experience as PhD student" was the men's top issue (44%W:46%M). Men also put "Professional activity too time-consuming" in the top three (45%W:35%M), while women included "Issues related to children", the issue which showed the most severe gender difference. (46%W:21%M).
As much as I'm pleased to see an article demonstrating that men also seek a work-life balance, I am concerned about the reported differences in "reasons for shifting career goals." As seems to be often the case with ticky-box answers, women chose more of the offered reasons than men: the average percentage of women endorsing one of the reported items was 36%, vs 30% of men.
I feel like this is becoming a hobby-horse with me, and I'm probably projecting (because I can't prioritize to save my life), but this reminds me of the issue with charitable giving, where women tend to split their gifts among many charities while men choose just one (I also brought it up in regards to chess practice two weeks ago). Is there a tendency for women to choose "all of the above" more often (e.g. bisexuality) than men, or am I drawing pictures on a random scatter graph?
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Two of the top three reasons for "shifting career emphasis" were shared between men and wome (see PDF table 1 from Academe article): "Other life interests" topped the women's list (48%W:35%M) while "Negative experience as PhD student" was the men's top issue (44%W:46%M). Men also put "Professional activity too time-consuming" in the top three (45%W:35%M), while women included "Issues related to children", the issue which showed the most severe gender difference. (46%W:21%M).
As much as I'm pleased to see an article demonstrating that men also seek a work-life balance, I am concerned about the reported differences in "reasons for shifting career goals." As seems to be often the case with ticky-box answers, women chose more of the offered reasons than men: the average percentage of women endorsing one of the reported items was 36%, vs 30% of men.
I feel like this is becoming a hobby-horse with me, and I'm probably projecting (because I can't prioritize to save my life), but this reminds me of the issue with charitable giving, where women tend to split their gifts among many charities while men choose just one (I also brought it up in regards to chess practice two weeks ago). Is there a tendency for women to choose "all of the above" more often (e.g. bisexuality) than men, or am I drawing pictures on a random scatter graph?
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Monday, January 26, 2009
In the workforce
About two weeks ago (1/13/09) we discussed the difference between men and women in participation in the "workforce". According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data we reviewed, 61% of adult women and 75% of adult men were considered to be part of the "workforce", which Lovecraftienne pointed out did not include those who contributed to their households as homemakers.
More relevant results to this discussion have just been published (BLS press release, 1/2/09). The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NSLY) has followed people born between 1980 and 1984 for a decade. At age 21, the women in this cohort were more likely than men to be enrolled in college (46% to 36%). Of those not enrolled in college at age 21, women were about twice as likely as men to be neither employed nor training for work. 7.3% of the women and 5.6% of men (21 y.o., never enrolled in college) had never held a job. No significant gender difference appears to exist in the longest time in a single job for non-college attendees.
It bothers me that there don't seem to be any statistics given for the employment of those who are enrolled in college. During my college career, I usually had at least one part-time job, and at some points, up to three. Then again, by the time I was 21, I had completed college and was working full-time for a single employer. I didn't feel like it was exceptional to work during college.
I wonder if participation in a family business is counted if there's no paycheck or taxes: I believe under those criteria, all three of my (over-21) siblings would count as "never employed". As Lovecraftienne complained on the previous BLS press release, there is no difference shown in these statistics between those who are full-time homemakers and any other unemployed group.
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More relevant results to this discussion have just been published (BLS press release, 1/2/09). The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NSLY) has followed people born between 1980 and 1984 for a decade. At age 21, the women in this cohort were more likely than men to be enrolled in college (46% to 36%). Of those not enrolled in college at age 21, women were about twice as likely as men to be neither employed nor training for work. 7.3% of the women and 5.6% of men (21 y.o., never enrolled in college) had never held a job. No significant gender difference appears to exist in the longest time in a single job for non-college attendees.
It bothers me that there don't seem to be any statistics given for the employment of those who are enrolled in college. During my college career, I usually had at least one part-time job, and at some points, up to three. Then again, by the time I was 21, I had completed college and was working full-time for a single employer. I didn't feel like it was exceptional to work during college.
I wonder if participation in a family business is counted if there's no paycheck or taxes: I believe under those criteria, all three of my (over-21) siblings would count as "never employed". As Lovecraftienne complained on the previous BLS press release, there is no difference shown in these statistics between those who are full-time homemakers and any other unemployed group.
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Friday, January 23, 2009
Media Multitasking
According to Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (2009)(pdf), gender differences in using TV and internet simultaneously depends on age group. From ages 15-39, men's simultaneous media use decreases, while women's increases. The Lifehacker article on this study has links to a couple of other interesting multitasking articles, including why it's really not that great.
Well, I'll be damned. I've always used media multitasking as an example of something men do more, and now I'm all confused. example: 7/9/08
For the record, I tried to write this while watching TV, and this was all I came up with.
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Well, I'll be damned. I've always used media multitasking as an example of something men do more, and now I'm all confused. example: 7/9/08
For the record, I tried to write this while watching TV, and this was all I came up with.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Set up for failure
DifferenceBlog, like many other blogs with a feminist bent, has complained about the lack of women in leadership positions. However, Haslam and Ryan (2008) point out that not all leadership positions are created equal. In their work about "The Glass Cliff" (see also 2005), Haslam and Ryan point out that women are more likely than men to be promoted to "precarious" leadership positions. When a particular position is likely to fail, they argue, it is more likely that a woman will be given the "opportunity" to save it.
There appears to be a belief that organizations on the decline "suit the distinctive leadership abilities of women" (2008 article). As previously discussed on DB (see 8/4/08) the "female style" of leadership is thought to be more collaborative and less hierarchical. Ryan, Haslam, and Postmes (2007) report that women are far more willing to ascribe this pattern to sexism, while men favored "benign interpretations."
It's tough for me even to admit that there are gender differences in leadership style, since I tend to assign such differences as being due to training, workplace environment, and similar factors. I also wonder whether women are more likely to accept sacrificial promotions, since getting promoted is generally harder for women. Are men as likely as women to stay in a floundering company, or to pursue advancement therein? I don't know. It isn't hard for me to believe a "subtle sexism" explanation for this phenomenon, or to believe that it exists, but I have to wonder what other factors could influence it.
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There appears to be a belief that organizations on the decline "suit the distinctive leadership abilities of women" (2008 article). As previously discussed on DB (see 8/4/08) the "female style" of leadership is thought to be more collaborative and less hierarchical. Ryan, Haslam, and Postmes (2007) report that women are far more willing to ascribe this pattern to sexism, while men favored "benign interpretations."
It's tough for me even to admit that there are gender differences in leadership style, since I tend to assign such differences as being due to training, workplace environment, and similar factors. I also wonder whether women are more likely to accept sacrificial promotions, since getting promoted is generally harder for women. Are men as likely as women to stay in a floundering company, or to pursue advancement therein? I don't know. It isn't hard for me to believe a "subtle sexism" explanation for this phenomenon, or to believe that it exists, but I have to wonder what other factors could influence it.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I have these urges...
This week TIME magazine (2009) profiles research by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL press release, 2009) that suggests men are better at controlling specific food cravings than women. Gene-Jack Wang's study (not yet published in PNAS) tempted patients with the sight, smell, and a taste of a favorite food (examples included chocolate cake and barbecue ribs) after a 17 hour fast, and then asked them to suppress the cravings for 40 minutes while in the PET scanner.
According to TIME, both men and women could suppress hunger, but women could not suppress cravings. These results, TIME claims, may explain why women have more eating disorders and trouble losing weight than men. The BNL press release goes into more detail, pointing out that the successful "suppression" of hunger refers to self-reported feelings of hunger, while "cravings" refers to brain activity as shown on the PET scan. Wang suggests that hormonal differences could be causing this effect.
Based on the TIME article, I was all kinds of ready to call shenanigans on the conclusions. I still kind of am tempted, but I'm not surprised to hear that women answered "yes, I am controlling my hunger" when (a) asked to control their hunger and (b) not given any choice about it. It's not like the experimenters were letting the participants say "you know what? the hell with your science: give me the ribs." (I hope they were well compensated! After a 17-hour fast, I would have been in tears.) The gender difference in brain activation is more surprising. I'm still fairly dubious about the conclusion that this has any measurable effect on dieting success.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
According to TIME, both men and women could suppress hunger, but women could not suppress cravings. These results, TIME claims, may explain why women have more eating disorders and trouble losing weight than men. The BNL press release goes into more detail, pointing out that the successful "suppression" of hunger refers to self-reported feelings of hunger, while "cravings" refers to brain activity as shown on the PET scan. Wang suggests that hormonal differences could be causing this effect.
Based on the TIME article, I was all kinds of ready to call shenanigans on the conclusions. I still kind of am tempted, but I'm not surprised to hear that women answered "yes, I am controlling my hunger" when (a) asked to control their hunger and (b) not given any choice about it. It's not like the experimenters were letting the participants say "you know what? the hell with your science: give me the ribs." (I hope they were well compensated! After a 17-hour fast, I would have been in tears.) The gender difference in brain activation is more surprising. I'm still fairly dubious about the conclusion that this has any measurable effect on dieting success.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Masculinity and Femininity
Constantinople (2005) reviews the history of psychology's attempts to measure the constructs of masculinity and femininity. Specifically, Constantinople questions the assumption made by all of these tests that masculinity and femininity are opposite ends of a binary spectrum, which would invalidate a large body of research.
You know, this sounds familiar. Oh right, because I wrote about it last month (12/11/08), and never got around to answering sandhawke's question over who is a "highly gendered" vs. "low gendered" celebrity. I'm still not sure I can, but I'd be tempted to call Eddie Izzard high-gendered, and Alan Cummings low-gendered (and neither of them particularly masculine or feminine). I'd have a harder time choosing exemplars for "female" celebrities.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
You know, this sounds familiar. Oh right, because I wrote about it last month (12/11/08), and never got around to answering sandhawke's question over who is a "highly gendered" vs. "low gendered" celebrity. I'm still not sure I can, but I'd be tempted to call Eddie Izzard high-gendered, and Alan Cummings low-gendered (and neither of them particularly masculine or feminine). I'd have a harder time choosing exemplars for "female" celebrities.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Monday, January 19, 2009
[Filler] Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
An article in The Nation (2006) discusses the point that labor unions were a driving force behind the adoption of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday in the United States. According to a BNA survey (2007), 33% of U.S. employers honored this day as a paid holiday for their employees. Three of the ten U.S. Federal Holidays are named for specific people: Washington, King, and Columbus. A quick search did not yield an unobserved holiday, or even a push for holiday, named after a specific woman.
Sorry the post is late. I have the day off, and forgot to write ahead of time.
So, I was thinking about MLK day, and whether there would be any gender difference in the likelihood that people had it off. According to the BNA survey, non-profits and government entities are most likely to give the day off. I'm not sure how they're defining government entities, but I'm fairly certain there are more women working for non-profits. Most schools are closed: more women are teachers than men. Hell, given the divide in childcare responsibility, even if women didn't have the day off, they might have to take it because their kids aren't in school. Wal-mart, the U.S.'s largest employer, doesn't offer this as one of their paid days off, and their hourly workforce is 72% women. I suspect that there is a difference, because paid holidays divide on industry lines, and gender segregation in employment is still fairly widespread.
My guess is that more women than men have today off, but I can't prove it. What factors am I forgetting?
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Sorry the post is late. I have the day off, and forgot to write ahead of time.
So, I was thinking about MLK day, and whether there would be any gender difference in the likelihood that people had it off. According to the BNA survey, non-profits and government entities are most likely to give the day off. I'm not sure how they're defining government entities, but I'm fairly certain there are more women working for non-profits. Most schools are closed: more women are teachers than men. Hell, given the divide in childcare responsibility, even if women didn't have the day off, they might have to take it because their kids aren't in school. Wal-mart, the U.S.'s largest employer, doesn't offer this as one of their paid days off, and their hourly workforce is 72% women. I suspect that there is a difference, because paid holidays divide on industry lines, and gender segregation in employment is still fairly widespread.
My guess is that more women than men have today off, but I can't prove it. What factors am I forgetting?
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Dysfunctional Attitudes
Part of Aaron T Beck's cognitive theory of depression suggests that dysfunctional attitudes (DA) may contribute to a predisposition to depression. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is widely used to assess severity of depressive symptoms. The less-often used "Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale" (DAS) (Weissman and Beck, 1978) has failed to produce consistent gender differences in dysfunctional attitudes. Given that women have higher rates of depression, it is odd that they would not have higher rates of DA if Beck's theory is correct.
You et al (2009) propose an explanation for this. In You et al's study, DA moderated depressive severity for men and women only when lifetime history of depression was controlled. When history was not controlled, DA moderated severity for women only. This leads You et al to suggest that "past depression may exert differing effects for men and women."
This is a bit spurious, but it strikes me that if you have a significant lifetime history of depression, you're going to have greater dysfunctional attitudes: because generally speaking, your life has sucked. It also strikes me that Beck's inventory doesn't do a good job of differentiating between rational and irrational depression, but I've had that complaint for a while. After two years of reading and writing about depression literature for DB, I've sort of come to the conclusion that women are depressed more because their lives suck more.
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You et al (2009) propose an explanation for this. In You et al's study, DA moderated depressive severity for men and women only when lifetime history of depression was controlled. When history was not controlled, DA moderated severity for women only. This leads You et al to suggest that "past depression may exert differing effects for men and women."
This is a bit spurious, but it strikes me that if you have a significant lifetime history of depression, you're going to have greater dysfunctional attitudes: because generally speaking, your life has sucked. It also strikes me that Beck's inventory doesn't do a good job of differentiating between rational and irrational depression, but I've had that complaint for a while. After two years of reading and writing about depression literature for DB, I've sort of come to the conclusion that women are depressed more because their lives suck more.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours -- LJ says this is a known issue.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A puzzling delay
WebMD (2009) points out a troubling finding by Concannon et al (2009), who found that women were more likely to be delayed when receiving emergency care for a cardiac event. As discussed last month (12/10/08), care for women displaying cardiac symptoms continues to lag behind that for men, and mortality rates for women's heart attacks are higher. According to the WebMD article, one suggested explanation is that modesty-related delays with EKGs -- which involve putting electrodes on the chest -- contribute to the delays.
The modesty theory is something I find really interesting. The only time I have been attended to by emergency services, I can't really tell you if there was any delay. I was too woozy from head trauma. However, they did try to cut off my pants. I stopped them, for two reasons: first, I'd just bought the pants; second, they were baggy BDUs, and easily pulled up all the way to my crotch.
I was surprised to find that I've never written about modesty-related differences before. Considering that one of the huge social differences is that men can go shirtless while women can't, this strikes me as a huge omission. I will have to write more breast-related posts! Besides: breasts!
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
The modesty theory is something I find really interesting. The only time I have been attended to by emergency services, I can't really tell you if there was any delay. I was too woozy from head trauma. However, they did try to cut off my pants. I stopped them, for two reasons: first, I'd just bought the pants; second, they were baggy BDUs, and easily pulled up all the way to my crotch.
I was surprised to find that I've never written about modesty-related differences before. Considering that one of the huge social differences is that men can go shirtless while women can't, this strikes me as a huge omission. I will have to write more breast-related posts! Besides: breasts!
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Chess
Like the sciences, the game of chess is one area proposed as an example of how there are "more men at the top" -- a distribution which has been suggested to indicate greater variation among men than among women in innate ability (e.g. Howard, 2005). Bilalić et al (2008) argue that base participation rates in chess and the sciences explain the disproportionate representation of men at the top, leaving "little left for biological or cultural explanations to account for." (see PhysOrg.com, 2009 for more detail on Bilalić et al's findings). This is hardly the first time participation rates have been implicated: Charness and Gerchak (1996) posited a log-linear model which not only predicted the distribution of women at the top levels of chess, but also the dominance of Russians, based on participation rates. Charness et al (2005) later found that solitary study was the greatest predictor of chess achievement, demonstrating that grandmasters spent nearly five times as long practicing chess in their first decade as intermediate-level players.
I hate to drag out this word, since I believe the definition to be meaningless, but here goes: multitasking. Women seem to divide up their resources (time, money and energy) differently than men. When we talked about charitable giving (10/1/08), women were more likely to give small amounts to several charities than a large sum to one. In several discussions of work-life balance, it's seemed likely that women were less likely to give priority to a single aspect of their lives. So, is it terribly unlikely that when men and women participate in chess, women are more likely to have additional demands on their time, and spend less time in solitary study? I don't think so. I'd like to spend more time discussing how men and women make priorities in their lives. But with everything I've got going on, I just don't have the time. ;)
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours, although yesterday (1/13/08) it took 24 hours.
I hate to drag out this word, since I believe the definition to be meaningless, but here goes: multitasking. Women seem to divide up their resources (time, money and energy) differently than men. When we talked about charitable giving (10/1/08), women were more likely to give small amounts to several charities than a large sum to one. In several discussions of work-life balance, it's seemed likely that women were less likely to give priority to a single aspect of their lives. So, is it terribly unlikely that when men and women participate in chess, women are more likely to have additional demands on their time, and spend less time in solitary study? I don't think so. I'd like to spend more time discussing how men and women make priorities in their lives. But with everything I've got going on, I just don't have the time. ;)
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours, although yesterday (1/13/08) it took 24 hours.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Unemployment
Last month (12/5/08), CaptainDomestic sent me a link which I posted on the Twitter Feed, but didn't write about, suggesting that men's jobs were harder hit by the economic crisis than women's jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics press release (1/9/09) shows that about 61% of adult women are considered to be part of the "workforce", compared to about 75% of men. The gender difference in non-institutional populations means that the civilian workforce is still over 50% female.
Maybe this isn't as interesting as I think it is, but I find that last paragraph particularly compelling. Any particular woman is less likely to be a worker than any particular man (75%:61%), but any particular worker is more likely to female. Another interesting thing (to me) is the fact that workers 16 to 19 are not separated by sex. Since the types of jobs available changes drastically for 18-19 year-olds, this seems kind of strange to me. I tend to think in terms of "high-school-job" and "high-school-graduate-jobs" (and "college-student-jobs"), but I recognize that not everyone gets to finish high-school. Still, labor laws affect the hours that 16 and 17 year olds can work, so making 20 the cut-off seems very clumsy to me.
Whoops. I just found BLS Table A-1, which divides workers 16 and over by age. There are slightly more male teens than female teens in the workforce. Fascinating.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours. (Possibly related to time-stamping issues?) EDIT: It ended up taking 24 hours for this post to be syndicated to LiveJournal
"men account for 70 percent of workers in manufacturing, which shed more than 500,000 jobs over the past year. Healthcare, in which nearly 80 percent of the workers are women, added more than 400,000 jobs." -- The Boston Globe (2008)The numbers reported by the Labor Department on Friday (1/9/08) seem to bear out the projections made in December, according to a United Press International (2009) story: in the year between December 2007 and December 2008, the unemployment rates for men and women separated widely, jumping from 4.4%:4.3% to 7.2%:5.9% (male:female).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics press release (1/9/09) shows that about 61% of adult women are considered to be part of the "workforce", compared to about 75% of men. The gender difference in non-institutional populations means that the civilian workforce is still over 50% female.
Maybe this isn't as interesting as I think it is, but I find that last paragraph particularly compelling. Any particular woman is less likely to be a worker than any particular man (75%:61%), but any particular worker is more likely to female. Another interesting thing (to me) is the fact that workers 16 to 19 are not separated by sex. Since the types of jobs available changes drastically for 18-19 year-olds, this seems kind of strange to me. I tend to think in terms of "high-school-job" and "high-school-graduate-jobs" (and "college-student-jobs"), but I recognize that not everyone gets to finish high-school. Still, labor laws affect the hours that 16 and 17 year olds can work, so making 20 the cut-off seems very clumsy to me.
Whoops. I just found BLS Table A-1, which divides workers 16 and over by age. There are slightly more male teens than female teens in the workforce. Fascinating.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours. (Possibly related to time-stamping issues?) EDIT: It ended up taking 24 hours for this post to be syndicated to LiveJournal
Monday, January 12, 2009
Bankruptcy
Teresa Sullivan et al's book, As We Forgive Our Debtors (1989, see Chap 8, specifically) points out that women were not even guaranteed credit in their own names until 1970 (or 1974?), with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Domowitz and Sartain (2003) cite Sullivan et al's book on the lack of significant difference between men and women on debt/income ratios, but do not note the fact that a single-earner males who filed for bankruptcy had an average income 48% higher than single-earner females in the bankruptcy sample. Domowitz and Sartain do not report any effect of gender on the bankruptcy decision, but point out the difficulty of doing this when 50% of bankruptcy filings are married couples filing jointly. More recently, Linfeld (2008) (of the Institute for Financial Literacy) reported that American women were more likely to file for bankruptcy than American men in the year 2007, continuing "a trend we've seen since 2005."
I can think of a number of factors that would influence a gender difference to declare bankruptcy between men and women: lower income, greater likelihood of dependents, and financial literacy seem like it would make bankruptcy more likely. Lower probability of being the sole breadwinner would make it less likely, although I wonder how relevant that is in the general population today. I seriously considered filing bankruptcy at a couple of points right after college. I had credit card debt, student loan debt, and an uninsured car accident settlement to pay off, and was working in theatre, which is code for "not even making living expenses." I did manage to get through that period without damaging my credit too badly, but I'm almost constantly surprised that I did.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
I can think of a number of factors that would influence a gender difference to declare bankruptcy between men and women: lower income, greater likelihood of dependents, and financial literacy seem like it would make bankruptcy more likely. Lower probability of being the sole breadwinner would make it less likely, although I wonder how relevant that is in the general population today. I seriously considered filing bankruptcy at a couple of points right after college. I had credit card debt, student loan debt, and an uninsured car accident settlement to pay off, and was working in theatre, which is code for "not even making living expenses." I did manage to get through that period without damaging my credit too badly, but I'm almost constantly surprised that I did.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal. Delay between actual post and LJ-syndication varies, but seems to be around 5-6 hours.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Women's height & Career
A story from the (Glasgow) Herald (2009) points out that Michelle Obama is not the tallest American first lady in history -- at 5'11", she's half an inch shorter than Eleanor Roosevelt -- but points out some studies that suggest that tall women tend to be more career-minded than their shorter counterparts. Research from an internet study conducted by Smith and Deady (2006) found that "the taller [a woman] was the less maternally driven she was likely to be". Judge and Cable (2004) suggest that height is related to career success (measured by income) for both men and women; although this effect is stronger in men, the difference is non-significant, even over a large sample (total n = 8,590).
I have to say that I was slightly disappointed to hear that Michelle Obama was giving up her career to be first lady, and slightly surprised. I wasn't as much as of a feminist back in 1993 when Hillary Clinton (5'8.5") became first lady, but I do remember thinking it was odd that she didn't continue her practice. Then again, I can't imagine it would be easy to juggle children, a career, and a secret service detail. I'm reminded of the Animaniacs song (Youtube video: first aired 1995), which listed the "Clintons: Bill and Hillary" as the current Presidents (apparently released in two versions, according to the Wikipedia article, with the revision toning down Hillary's status).
Related posts:
Dementia Risk & Height 5/8/08
Height & Jealousy 3/14/08
Height & Disease 9/26/07
Differences in effect of Height 5/10/07
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
I have to say that I was slightly disappointed to hear that Michelle Obama was giving up her career to be first lady, and slightly surprised. I wasn't as much as of a feminist back in 1993 when Hillary Clinton (5'8.5") became first lady, but I do remember thinking it was odd that she didn't continue her practice. Then again, I can't imagine it would be easy to juggle children, a career, and a secret service detail. I'm reminded of the Animaniacs song (Youtube video: first aired 1995), which listed the "Clintons: Bill and Hillary" as the current Presidents (apparently released in two versions, according to the Wikipedia article, with the revision toning down Hillary's status).
Related posts:
Dementia Risk & Height 5/8/08
Height & Jealousy 3/14/08
Height & Disease 9/26/07
Differences in effect of Height 5/10/07
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Women in Government
Two Swedish research groups address the role of women in governing bodies in papers coming out this year. Wängnerud (2009) addresses two questions about the representation of women in parliamentary democracies: first, the number of women in Parliaments, and second, the effect these women have once they reach office. Wängnerud notes that globally, women's representation in Parliaments has increased from 11.7% to 18.3% in the past 10 years. Lindgren et al (2009), focusing specifically on India, suggest that the participation of women in government leads to better representation of the needs of the masses in two ways: women are understandably better at representing the needs of women, but also seem to be better at representing the needs of men.
This seems to be at the core of a lot of why I now consider myself a feminist, and why I didn't always. When women prosper, society prospers. I used to be afraid that promoting the needs of women was at the expense of the needs of men, but that's not really a concern for me anymore.
My experience of participation in government is sadly lacking. There's the small things I do towards the national and local government: voting, the occasional call to a representative, and (in the most recent presidential election) campaign contributions. However, for local government, my main role model is my mother, who joined the local school board when I was a kid.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
This seems to be at the core of a lot of why I now consider myself a feminist, and why I didn't always. When women prosper, society prospers. I used to be afraid that promoting the needs of women was at the expense of the needs of men, but that's not really a concern for me anymore.
My experience of participation in government is sadly lacking. There's the small things I do towards the national and local government: voting, the occasional call to a representative, and (in the most recent presidential election) campaign contributions. However, for local government, my main role model is my mother, who joined the local school board when I was a kid.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Differences in Symptoms
Gijsbers van Wijk et al (1999) examined the fact that women seem to consistently report more severe symptoms and "illness behavior" than men by having participants keep daily health diaries for a period of four weeks. They conclude that women seem to have greater negative mood during illness, which mediates both symptom severity and illness behavior. Differences in symptom prevalence were also found, as reported in Table 1, above.
Did the same thing from the table jump out at you as jumped out at me? Flatulence didn't make the women's top ten list. Neither did congested nose, running nose, or ringing ears. Three of those things are gross. I'm suspecting that women are underreporting symptoms that they find embarrassing, although I have no evidence to support this.
Actually, the reason I bring this up today (unsurprisingly) is that I've been dealing with a head cold for about a week. I had been hoping that "illness behavior" meant "activity level during illness" instead of "things you do because you're sick". It seemed likely to me (here's another baseless claim) that women would be more likely to spend their sick days doing housework and child care, while men would (since they take fewer sick days) be more likely to hole up in bed and/or watch TV.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Caffeine utility
Just before the holiday break (see 12/24/08), we discussed evidence that caffeine may have a greater effect on men than on women. The actual utility of caffeine as a performance enhancer is debated: Zwyghuizen-Doorenbos et al (1990) measured sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) and auditory vigilance in a group of 24 men and found that caffeine had an effect. However, James (1998) found that caffeine did not improve performance among habitual caffeine users (male and female). Caffeine withdrawals, on the other hand, did impair performance. As recently as James and Rogers (2005), James continued to argue that caffeine did not improve performance or mood.
My girlfriend and I recently had an argument about whether caffeine was an effective stimulant. I tend to agree with James (that the effect is withdrawal-symptom-abatement), while she uses it as a performance-enhancing drug. I've been a habitual caffeine user on and off since I was 12, but have occasionally gone through caffeine "breaks", where I'll take a few months off. The only effect I've noticed when I go back is nervousness and trouble sleeping. How does caffeine affect you?
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
My girlfriend and I recently had an argument about whether caffeine was an effective stimulant. I tend to agree with James (that the effect is withdrawal-symptom-abatement), while she uses it as a performance-enhancing drug. I've been a habitual caffeine user on and off since I was 12, but have occasionally gone through caffeine "breaks", where I'll take a few months off. The only effect I've noticed when I go back is nervousness and trouble sleeping. How does caffeine affect you?
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Year's Resolutions
Reuters (2008) reports that men are more likely to keep their New Year's Resolutions than women. This is according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Dorthy.com, a website which claims to help people "Do Your Dreams". The poll also reported that women were more likely to make resolutions. As discussed two years ago, when a similar male-success-rate was reported (see 1/4/07), the key difference may be in the types of goals set by men and women. The Catholic-sponsored Marist Poll (2008) did not find this difference in resolution-keeping, reporting that 62% of women and 58% of men kept resolutions from last year.
I didn't make any resolutions this year. I think I could stand to lose a little weight, but I'm not overly concerned about it. Quitting smoking would probably be good too, but it's not high on my priority list. Losing weight and quitting smoking were the top two resolutions for men and women in the Marist poll, but my experience hasn't really shown that setting New Year's Resolutions increases or decreases my success rate in making changes.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
I didn't make any resolutions this year. I think I could stand to lose a little weight, but I'm not overly concerned about it. Quitting smoking would probably be good too, but it's not high on my priority list. Losing weight and quitting smoking were the top two resolutions for men and women in the Marist poll, but my experience hasn't really shown that setting New Year's Resolutions increases or decreases my success rate in making changes.
Find out the day's topic before you read: follow diffblog on Twitter! Diffblog also available on LiveJournal.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Hand bacteria
Draft dated 11/7/08
According to a University of Colorado press release (2008), Fierer et al found that women had higher levels of bacterial biodiversity than men. This was not, however, related to handwashing techniques, as far as the researchers could determine: "Although hand washing altered community composition, overall levels of bacterial diversity were unrelated to the time since the last hand washing". This press release states that the story was published in the November 3rd PNAS. However, there is no Nov 3 edition of that publication.
Previous looks at handwashing: 10/15/08 and 11/7/06
I'm on vacation until Jan 5. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy seeing these drafts that languished, uncompleted, over the past year. Happy holidays!
According to a University of Colorado press release (2008), Fierer et al found that women had higher levels of bacterial biodiversity than men. This was not, however, related to handwashing techniques, as far as the researchers could determine: "Although hand washing altered community composition, overall levels of bacterial diversity were unrelated to the time since the last hand washing". This press release states that the story was published in the November 3rd PNAS. However, there is no Nov 3 edition of that publication.
Previous looks at handwashing: 10/15/08 and 11/7/06
I'm on vacation until Jan 5. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy seeing these drafts that languished, uncompleted, over the past year. Happy holidays!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Social class and attractiveness
Draft dated 3/24/08:
Blogger Halfsigma (2005) writes that "Higher social classes value attractiveness more, and because of cross-assortative mating they tend to have better genetic material".
About 6 years ago, a friend of mine was reading a book about class in America (maybe Fussell's Class, 1992?) I have no idea if that's the right book, but my friend mentioned the idea from the book that attractive women tended to marry up the status chain, and today's article reminds me of that.
I'm on vacation until Jan 5. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy seeing these drafts that languished, uncompleted, over the past year. Happy holidays!
Blogger Halfsigma (2005) writes that "Higher social classes value attractiveness more, and because of cross-assortative mating they tend to have better genetic material".
About 6 years ago, a friend of mine was reading a book about class in America (maybe Fussell's Class, 1992?) I have no idea if that's the right book, but my friend mentioned the idea from the book that attractive women tended to marry up the status chain, and today's article reminds me of that.
I'm on vacation until Jan 5. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy seeing these drafts that languished, uncompleted, over the past year. Happy holidays!
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