Dear Hasbeen,

'got lots of women in senior positions?'

Really? by 'lots'
you mean one or two - right?

And the ones running the Departments
are still men...

Name at least one major hospital which
has a woman as head of Obstetrics...
Or any other major hospital department...

Foxy dear, I'm too damn old to bother with names, but there were two lady health area directors until recently. Is that senior enough?

By the way, have you noticed our efficient Water Commission Director yet? Now she's a flash of female brilliance, if ever there was one.

It was one of them, who with total mismanagement, eliminated obstetrics entirely, from our new hospital. In fact she managed to turn it into a band-aid station on the way to a bl@@dt awful outer suburban hospital, an hours ride away by ambulance.

Some of us have been lucky enough to catch a chopper to the city, it sure dosen't pay to get sent to her suburban joint.

My choice explanation is this:

Women are different from men (withholding exceptions). Period.

It's not hard to see.

1. We ALREADY accept that physically this is the case, because it's hard to deny what you see with your own eyes.

2. There is NO REASON AT ALL to believe the same doesn't apply mentally and psychologically.

Foxy, you've argued well and with links to provide support. Much more 'hard' evidence, then what some of the penis-hunter-logic-singlemindedness posters came up with.

Steve, was your point to get a nice little gender bun fight going by quoting one lonely professor who has, as Foxy pointed out, retracted his statements? It only brings out the unpleasant and irrelevant bleatings of the likes of the Hasbeens of this world.

Boys, wait just a little longer and we will need affirmative action to get more men into positions of power. All the top faculties have a greater percentage of females as students. Women just have to wait a bit until the last of the old boys die off or retire, the glass ceiling will disappear simply because there will be fewer capable men to choose from.

Dear Anansi,

Thank you for your kind words.

It is just a question of time,
as you point out.

Our modern society is becoming
increasingly much more
individualistic and more open
to change and experimentation, and it
is likely that women and men will
explore a wide variety of possible roles.

I only hope that it will happen in
my lifetime - where a person's individual
qualities, rather than her or his
biological sex, will be the primary measure of
that person's worth and achievement.

Anansi,

The "lonely professor" is now President-elect Obama's senior economic adviser. He is a former secretary of the treasury in the Clinton Administration.

Subsequent to resigning as president of Harvard he was invited back as one of Harvard's "Select Professors." Only the brightest and the best receive such an invitation.

I started this thread because I think it is an interesting topic.

Foxy, Anansi,

I have explained why I discount Foxy's links. Neither of you have addressed the issues I raised.

As many posters here have pointed out, there are reasons why women find it hard to make it to the top in science. These reasons have nothing to do with gender discrimination or (non-existent) male superiority. You have both chosen to ignore these issues as well.