It seems to me that in Australia at least there seems to be a growing tide of feminism.
For instance, the Equal Opportunity Committee's current head is well-known as a feminist; a few months ago, she was heavily criticized for ruling that a very old and established men's club (the Weld Club) must be allowed to accommodate females as well but neglecting to enforce similar restrictions vice-versa.
Julia Gillard, the deputy prime minister post-2007-election, is the first female deputy prime minister. The media made a fair bit of hubbub about it.
More recently, females significantly outperformed males in all TEE subjects - I think TEE is our equivalent of SATs or something, the score derived from these examinations are used to determine university entry - based on the respective genders' average scores (although the most prestigious awards based on scoring were awarded to males). This is particularly odd since this is a dramatic swing from last year, so it's hard to tell if this is a statistical anomaly or the start of a trend.
Thus the West Australian state government is considering segregating all males and females in state schools, or at least in subjects where one gender noticeably outperforms the other. The media reacted by insinuating that all girls are intellectually superior to boys, which is ludicrous.
Given that I don't know of a single other country where there is such a ridiculous imbalance in favour of females, and indeed, in Asian countries it appears that the reverse is evident and that males outperform females. This leads me to believe that perhaps Australian culture encourages males to be academically substandard. The country was founded on the backs of convicts (who are still lauded today) and soldiers; combined with an incredible emphasis on sports, which I have not seen elsewhere, definitely seems to contribute to an anti-intellectual spirit, which is further demonstrated through the Australian "natural" opposition to the rich and successful (tall poppy syndrome).
Although not scientifically valid, I note that in my school year, the strongest-performing students included females but dominantly males that hail from non-Australian cultures. Unsurprisingly, the students that best identified with Australian culture performed poorly academically and very well in their sporting endeavors.
Possibly this increased variance in the ability of males results in the skewing of results towards females because the measures don't include outliers (the very top and bottom of the scale). Can't know for sure.
I'm curious to know if this feminism is unique to Australia or if it's equally strong in other countries, share your thoughts on this disbalance between females and males academically.
For instance, the Equal Opportunity Committee's current head is well-known as a feminist; a few months ago, she was heavily criticized for ruling that a very old and established men's club (the Weld Club) must be allowed to accommodate females as well but neglecting to enforce similar restrictions vice-versa.
Julia Gillard, the deputy prime minister post-2007-election, is the first female deputy prime minister. The media made a fair bit of hubbub about it.
More recently, females significantly outperformed males in all TEE subjects - I think TEE is our equivalent of SATs or something, the score derived from these examinations are used to determine university entry - based on the respective genders' average scores (although the most prestigious awards based on scoring were awarded to males). This is particularly odd since this is a dramatic swing from last year, so it's hard to tell if this is a statistical anomaly or the start of a trend.
Thus the West Australian state government is considering segregating all males and females in state schools, or at least in subjects where one gender noticeably outperforms the other. The media reacted by insinuating that all girls are intellectually superior to boys, which is ludicrous.
Given that I don't know of a single other country where there is such a ridiculous imbalance in favour of females, and indeed, in Asian countries it appears that the reverse is evident and that males outperform females. This leads me to believe that perhaps Australian culture encourages males to be academically substandard. The country was founded on the backs of convicts (who are still lauded today) and soldiers; combined with an incredible emphasis on sports, which I have not seen elsewhere, definitely seems to contribute to an anti-intellectual spirit, which is further demonstrated through the Australian "natural" opposition to the rich and successful (tall poppy syndrome).
Although not scientifically valid, I note that in my school year, the strongest-performing students included females but dominantly males that hail from non-Australian cultures. Unsurprisingly, the students that best identified with Australian culture performed poorly academically and very well in their sporting endeavors.
Possibly this increased variance in the ability of males results in the skewing of results towards females because the measures don't include outliers (the very top and bottom of the scale). Can't know for sure.
I'm curious to know if this feminism is unique to Australia or if it's equally strong in other countries, share your thoughts on this disbalance between females and males academically.