There's an old maxim that when you're in a hole, quit digging. Bluestem had to think about this when we read the following in the Minnesota House Session Daily article, Moving women into the future:
Though the world is changing and more women are holding executive positions within companies, Kieffer said it’s sometimes more about instinct and that women and girls move more naturally to verbal professions and the arts.
“My dad was an engineer and I was a math whiz from when I was very little,” she said. “He tried to encourage me to be excited about science fairs. I’d win ribbons, but it’s just not what I was interested in. Kids today have so many more choices and opportunities that I think this will eventually correct itself.”
While attributing the pink collar wage penalty to "instinct" isn't quite as egregious as Allen Quist claiming that a genetic predeposition causes men to be head of the household, the statement is heading in the same direction.
It's also a stereotype to ponder in light of the under-representation of women on American op-ed pages and the place of women in the canon of great literature. Maybe that's not "verbal," in which case we most wonder why so few women on Sunday morning pundit shows.
We also wonder why, if art is so instinctual for women, their place as artists in art history is so tiny.
Perhaps she was thinking of Hildegard of Bingen. Or maybe she's just a very silly person.
Image: Artemisia Gentileschi, “Susannah and the Elders” 1610.
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See, women are drawn to the arts because math is hard. Or something like that. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Mar 26, 2014 at 06:41 PM