SEX AND I.Q. -- AN APOLOGIA

The insidiously deceptive effects of this are best illustrated by the Venn diagram in Fig. 3. As it can plainly be seen, although the circles representing successful male and female business decision-making are of equal size, the components of each circle are skewed. Successful female-owned businesses rely in substantial measure on help from men. Successful male-owned businesses succeed largely on their own.

Often, complicated scientific concepts are best grasped by laymen through the adoption of a simpler statistical model. Think of it this way: The United States and Canada both won World War II. Were they entitled to be equally proud?

5. The Penultimate Pitch

Plato, the first social scientist, watched shadows dancing on the cave wall and drew elaborate conclusions about the lives of the people within. So too may we analyze the mysteries of the brain through its shadows.

The brain is a machine. If it were an internal combustion engine, we could examine it by taking it apart, testing its compression, its timing, the seal on the valves, and so forth. But because we cannot do this with the brain, we must test it the way one might evaluate a running engine without dismantling it: by how efficiently it performs. The more efficient the engine, the better the mileage, the lower the oil consumption, the stronger the torque.

The more efficient the brain, the more efficient the operation of the body.

Consider man versus woman on the ball field.

The human female's "bent-arm" contorted throwing style is the least efficient possible method for propelling a baseball through space, and yet it is automatically adopted by any girl or woman of any age throwing a ball for the first, or thousandth, time.

The straighter, whiplike off-the-shoulder male style is the most efficient method yet devised. No one teaches this. The male brain simply knows.

6. The Marathon Woman

Consistently, since ancient Greece, the best women's times in the marathon have been 10 to 20 percent slower than the best men's times, and this disparity has generally extended over the aggregate times of all finishers. Historically, this has been attributed to an assumed lesser strength of women, a contention we reject as patronizing.

In light of the material thus far presented, is it not reasonable to speculate that women's longer marathon times might be attributable to the fact that, during the course of the race, they tend to get lost?

We do not contend this as a certainty. We raise it as a possibility only.

Conclusion

Society must recognize the existence of inherent gender-based intellectual disparities, and celebrate these differences without seeking to denigrate women or minimize their historical contributions. Women must be encouraged to tailor their goals to reasonable expectations, considering their limitations. Because humor is a function of intellect, articles like this should be patiently explained to them, so they do not make untoward and uncharitable assumptions about the motives of the author, who is, after all, like Drs. Murray and Herrnstein, an impartial scientist who is free of all bigotry.

Next week: Why Presbyterians are idiots.