I have said before that in my experience, on the average, women are smarter than men. The story I told a year or so ago was of going to dinner with a couple of which the husband was a fighter pilot, as was his son, and their favorite activity was flying fighter jets side by side. So you get the picture.
For some reason, which I cannot begin to remember, I told this couple that in my experience, on the average, women are smarter than men. The husband shot back "no they're not; women can't focus." If I had felt like arguing, I would have said that that's why women are smarter than men: they take more into account. I don't know if it's an outgrowth of maternal instincts, or "nesting," or what. But they're not as ridigly fixated as are men, and it allows them to appreciate a broader perspective, and be smarter than men. That's setting aside whether or not there are any differences in female and male frontal lobes. (Interestingly, today I met a new couple who needed treatment, and the girlfriend deliberately got herself intoxicated, which she somehow thought would be an advantage. It certainly wasn't. She also admitted that her past career was as a "porn star," and this was her boyfriend's second relationship with a "porn star." They met online, and, after a short time, she moved in with him. He has more money than he knows what to do with, and he likes the kind of sex he can have with "porn stars." [You get that picture, too, right?] It was unclear what she wanted out of this relationship, but I certainly wouldn't rule out the lifestyle he provides. She was too drunk to engage in a proper conversation. I'll see her individually, when she's sober, and find out more. But the point is that this young woman, whom anyone would dismiss as an airheaded floozy, is smarter than her tech-endowed boyfriend. She'll get her needs met, at least for a while, and he'll wind up with nothing but sexual escapades with someone who frankly couldn't care less about him.)
There's been a lot of talk about Caitlin Clark lately (if you don't know who she is, she was an overpowering basketball star in college, and now, she's a star in her first season in the WNBA.) A lot of people have had things to say about her. LeBron James thinks she's great, and great for the sport. Charles Barkley said this: Charles Barkley's Comments About Caitlin Clark's Haters Goes Viral After Foul (msn.com). He says men are the "the most insecure group in the world." And he's right. Men are a perfect example of "the best defense is a good offense" in their efforts to subjugate women, so the men will feel stronger, more powerful, more in charge, and smarter. Culturally, male-dominated groups suppress and infantilize women, and the women, who are led to think they're powerless, accept their fate, and it's all based on the men's well-supported fear of women. ("A woman's place is in the kitchen" does not mean that men are incapable of learning to cook. It's just a way of limiting women's functioning, capacity, and overall influence.) Not that men have anything to fear, but they're consciously or unconsciously aware of their comparative inferiority.
Which is certainly not to say that every woman on earth is smarter than every man on earth. But an awful lot of them are smarter than the men. The awareness -- even an unconscious awareness -- of that fact is why men feel a need to dominate women.
I have female patients who are smarter than I am. I know vastly more about psychiatry than they do, but I work harder in a different way to help them than I do with my male patients. I'm smarter than more or less all of my male patients, and it's generally easier to help them. Although it's harder to help some, because they don't adequately get it. I do know some men who are smarter than I am, but they're not my patients.
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