SEX AND I.Q. -- AN APOLOGIA

A 1992 medical study of cadavers at the University of Western Ontario and a contemporary but independent study in Ulster concluded that on the average, men's brains are 8 percent larger than women's brains, even after adjusting for the discrepancy in the total body weight of men and women.

We make no assertion here that brain mass relates directly to intelligence. As scientists, we must at all costs avoid the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc. To argue that women are dumber because their brains are smaller would be no more intellectually valid than asserting that just because someone is 6 feet 7 inches tall he is more likely to be able to dunk a basketball than someone who is 5 feet 3.

So call this one a tossup.

3. Extremely Empirical Data

According to the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J., women, on average, score nearly 50 points below men on the Scholastic Assessment Test, the national college entrance exam.

Some studies point out that once women are in college, their performance is equal to, or even superior to, men's performance. We accept that fact, and applaud it warmly, but we must recognize it for what it is. Unscientific.

Unlike an exam administered anonymously, graded by computer and field-tested over generations to eliminate bias of any sort, performance in school is perforce a manipulable measurement. It is a measure not of raw ability, or of intellectual capacity, but of a mishmash of qualities that include diligence, organization and diplomatic skills. It can be affected by factors as extraneous as one's consumption of fraternity beer, or one's skill at coquettishly elevating one's stockinged thigh in a manner calculated to be pleasing to the professorial eye.

4. The Women's Tutorial

Lately, social scientists have been conducting elaborate studies involving male and female performance in the workplace. One of the more interesting of these was a recent study by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners on the relative success of businesses run by men and businesses run by women. The study also surveys the management techniques employed by each sex.

At first blush, the results suggest parity. Men and women owners succeed in business in approximately equal proportion. Men tend to be more dictatorial, women more consensus-building. These were the results as reported in the national media.

The national media failed to properly interpret the results.

Further analysis of the findings reveals that men tend to make their decisions on their own. Women are 30 percent more likely to call in consultants. Consultants are 60 percent more likely to be men. (Emphasis mine.)