Anybody remember this man who calls himself a scientist?
'Glass ceiling' reflects women's innate shortcomings, professor says
Philippe Rushton scandalized with race-based theories - Lance Crossley, CanWest News Service Published: Friday, September 08, 2006
OTTAWA - A recent study proves it is "very likely" that the reason women have difficulty rising to the top in their careers is because they are less intelligent than men, according to controversial University of Western Ontario psychologist J. Philippe Rushton.
The professor -- already criticized for claiming that whites are intellectually superior to blacks, and that higher AIDS rates in Africa are due to a more insatiable sexual appetite in the black community -- believes the "glass ceiling" phenomenon is probably due to innate ability rather than discrimination.
"We have to find the truth about the normal distribution in society," said the professor, whose study is published in the September issue of the academic journal Intelligence. "It's not right to simply say, 'It must be discrimination and don't dare say anything else.' One should really look at the facts."
Prof. Rushton co-authored a study that analyzed 100,000 scholastic aptitude tests (SATs) written by American teens, aged 17 and 18. Researchers focused on the general intelligence factor -- which relates to how quickly an individual can grasp a concept and is widely considered the most crucial ingredient for high IQ scores -- and discovered males scored the equivalent of 3.63 IQ points greater than their female counterparts.
Prof. Rushton, who was surprised by the findings, said the results reinforce similar studies carried out by Richard Lynn at the University of Ulster, in Northern Ireland, and Helmut Nyborg at Aarhus University in Denmark.
"We still have to be cautious, but it's difficult to believe this is wrong. But it would be very nice to be confirmed by additional teams before we can be 100% certain."
Prof. Rushton said the male-female differences were present at every socio-economic level and across several ethnic groups.
It's only in late adolescence that the IQ advantage becomes apparent, he said, which he attributes to the difference in early maturity levels.
"It looks like up until late adolescence, the females have the advantage over males because they mature faster, which masks the underlying difference."
For the past century, the consensus among scientists has been that there is no difference in intelligence levels between the sexes, other than perhaps men's and women's respective strengths in spatial and verbal functions.
Prof. Rushton's past race claims about Asians being more intelligent than whites, and whites more intelligent than blacks, has drawn criticism from both within and outside the scientific community. In 1989, environmentalist-broadcaster David Suzuki was so outraged by the race claims that he challenged the psychologist to a public debate, which was held at the University of Western campus. Former Ontario premier David Peterson once said he would have Prof. Rushton fired if he had the power to do so.
© National Post 2006
