You always knew that girls were just as smart (if not smarter) than boys, but now we have the test scores to back it up.
For the past 100 years, women have tested lower than men in IQ tests, but as of recently, women are scoring higher on the tests than their male counterparts.
James Flynn, world-renowned expert in IQ testing, published the results of a recent round of IQ tests, and he says that the change in scores can be linked to our modern world. “In the last 100 years, the IQ scores of both men and women have risen, but women’s have risen faster,” he told the Daily Mail. “This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.”
Let’s think about the evolution of the female role since 1912. We’re talking about the end of the corset, the beginning of the bra, the burning of the bra… the right to vote, the right to be treated as equals in the work place, and women taking up roles as CEOs and running for president. As women, we have made strides in our societal roles over the last one hundred years all while maintaining our roles as moms, wives, and homemakers.
Yes, it’s stressful, but has it resulted in the expansion of our brains to contain more information? As an article in Time pointed out that, “because of discriminatory gender socializing, [women] never realized their own potential.”
According to The Telegraph, one explanation for the sudden shift is that the increased demands of juggling a family with a solid career but another is that women have always had the potential to be smarter than men, but not the resources to achieve the results. Because women are now allowed to access whatever information they desire, their realm of knowledge is constantly expanding. As a result, the improvement in IQ test scores could have everything to do with what resources we have now, as opposed to previous generations.
Helena Jamieson, a consultant formerly of Cambridge says, “I think women probably always knew deep down that they were the more intelligent ones – but as the gentler sex we were quiet about it and let men continue to believe they ruled the world.”
What do you think?
