There is an abundance of evidence that despite some feminists claims to the contrary, it is boys rather than girls who on average are systematically under performing in schools. The big question is why. Veronica Dahl, a professor of computing science at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, offered an explanation — boys know they are part of a “ruling class” and as such know they can “laze a bit” because it won’t affect their position in society.
This is, of course, an absurd claim. Boys are far more likely to drop out of high school than girls are, and people who fail to obtain high school diplomas have very limited economic prospects. Women who graduate high school and go on to college earn far more, on average, than do men who drop out — position within Canadian and American society is today based largely on merit.
Freelancer writer Ilana Mercer became entangled in a mini-controversy after criticizing Dahl for making this statement. As Mercer relates in an article about the controversy (Male bashing in academe), Dahl’s position seemed to be that a) Dahl didn’t actually mean what she was quoted as saying, but b) nonetheless what she didn’t mean to say was in fact an accurate explanation of boys’ poor academic experience.
Mercer wonders,
What do you think would have befallen Prof. Dahl had she ventured that the only reason women are underrepresented in the engineering sciences is because they are lazy and know a man will eventually take care of them? I wager the Prof.’s fitness to teach women would have been called into question.
Source:
Male bashing in academe. Ilana Mercer, LewRockwell.Com, June 15, 2001.