That Guy: Gals have the smarts but no hope of using them

Alasdair Thompson on 'Campbell Live' Thursday. Photo / Supplied

Opinion

Alasdair Thompson of the Employers and Manufacturers Association should be ashamed of himself for suggesting that woman aren't as productive as men because of their propensity for having monthly "sick days".

It is difficult to comprehend that there are still these flat-Earth thinkers, especially when most rational people know that the main reason women aren't paid the same is because they are not as intelligent.

It is a fact that women tend to do better at school, university and in intelligence tests, but most experts believe that men are probably still smarter.

It comes down to how we measure intelligence or how we use the intelligence we have.

Many scientists, beginning with an associate of Darwin's, have proven that although a woman's brain has the same parts as a man's, it is used differently.

The woman's brain has added features which help them communicate better with babies. These features are less developed in a man, so that space has been replaced with a sort of "brain upgrade" that allows a man to focus on a concept indefinitely until he has a result; good or bad.

This stubbornness is ideal in the workplace.

Some car dashboards are like a woman's brain - they have amazing features: stereos, air conditioning, impact-warning alarms, hazard lights and Navmans.

These all work together simultaneously. But a man's brain has stripped away many of these features. It needs only the rev counter, fuel gauge and oil warning light (and possibly the stereo).

Because the man's brain is more focused it doesn't need a Navman to get around; it has developed a sense of direction. On the other hand, because a woman's brain is too complicated, it appears very busy but will usually forget to put oil and petrol in the car!

Researchers believe the woman's brain doesn't lack intelligence in the strictest sense, but it lacks what they call Work Focus Intelligence (WFI).

Whether the differences in WFI should equate to differences in pay is a different argument and not one I wish to enter yet, certainly not until I see how this column is received.

I am excellent at Trivial Pursuit. This is because I have a broad general knowledge and the ability to focus on the game long enough to give myself the best chance possible. Women have the same skills but often get bored, and will drift off into irrelevant discussions.

Many women have beaten me at Trivial Pursuit but it is worth mentioning that it was men who came up with the game in the first place.

Recently, some research was conducted whereby the two sexes were put into separate rooms to work through some Krypton Factor-type problems.

The first time through, the groups completed the tasks in about the same time. The second time, there was a telephone in the corner of each room. The results were astounding.

The men completed their tasks in a faster time than before, whereas the women failed to complete their tasks at all and by the end of the experiment many of them had fallen out with each other. The telephone was too much of a distraction, they needed to communicate and in some cases they over-communicated; to the extent of back-stabbing.

Later they tried the experiment again with a crate of beer in the men's room and a crying baby in the women's.

The women completed the task in average time, but the men got drunk and spent most of their time either play-fighting or on the phone trying to get through to the women's room. Scientists aren't sure what to make of this.

So it is difficult to define intelligence but, if the experts are to be believed, it is WFI that men have more of - and that may go a little way toward justifying the differences in pay.

It's a pity Alasdair Thompson didn't do a bit more research on this matter.

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