Performing the same task and/or other manifestations of difference.
Effect sizes are almost always less than 1. Even in the areas of strongest difference, they are not that large. One difference which bears scrutiny is differences in spatial ability. The Stanford med article mentions this. Yet I have 99th percentile spatial skills and would not want to be stereotyped differently. My visiospatial skills far exceed my verbal ability.
If you’re still not getting it, I am better than 99% of men at “visualizing what happens when a complicated two- or three-dimensional shape is rotated in space, at correctly determining angles from the horizontal, at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles.” Okay?
Also, not all research is consistent. My brother sent me a study done at MIT where women scored just as high as men on spatial rotation tests when instructed to imagine themselves as a “stereotypical male.” Furthermore, stereotyping ability based on gender has been shown to be harmful, introducing a “stereotype threat.” Perhaps I am very good at math, for example, because I was shielded in my youth from the stereotype that girls aren’t.
The Stanford med article also talks about toy preferences. I also preferred male stereotyped toys as a child. This was a big problem because my parents bought us toys based on our gender. So I would beat up my brother to play with his. My favorite toys were those that enabled me to build things. So legos. And though i was not particularly interested in cars or trains, I was very interested in configuring tracks.
The first toys I would play with were not dolls or trucks, but blocks. The experiences I had as a child were sad and frustrating, as in so many ways, I was asked, expected, and pushed to be how I am not.
Nothing in the Stanford med article contradicts what’s in the Medium article we are commenting on. That’s what you’re not getting.
In fact, the authors say:
“All these measured differences are averages derived from pooling widely varying individual results. While statistically significant, the differences tend not to be gigantic. They are most noticeable at the extremes of a bell curve, rather than in the middle, where most people cluster. Some argue that we may safely ignore them.”
What the original Medium article is saying that gender differences in sexuality, like their gender differences, are much smaller than what men previously concluded. This does not in any way contradict the conclusions of the Stanford Med article.
The authors also recognize that some women have a “typical male brain structure.” So, again, differences are not dichotomous.
Also, Halpern offers the succinct assessment: “The role of culture is not zero. The role of biology is not zero.”