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From: martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: ET sex roles, request for clarification
Message-ID: <490@ihuxt.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-May-84 21:32:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxt.490
Posted: Tue May 15 21:32:53 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 16-May-84 04:52:59 EDT
References: <1158@drux3.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 15

No respectable scientist has proposed that women are genetically
predisposed to be unable to learn arithmetic or calculus or any of the
mathematical subjects useful to most engineers.  The trait several
scientists have proposed to be subject to a sexual predisposition is the
ability to perceive or to visualize spatial relationships.  Not being a
mathematician I am not sure but I suspect such a predisposition might mean
women on the average might have greater difficulty learning certain areas
of differential geometry or of topology.

I do not believe any researcher has postulated a specific sex-linked gene
as is the case for hemophilia but many scientists do speak of sexual
predisposition to violence or to aggressiveness or to motherliness. 
Suggesting a sexual predisposition to ability or inability to perceive
spatial relationships does not seem totally off the wall.