I tend to agree with that article, in most respects; however, gender disparity isn't everywhere in "academic" competitions. Up in Canada, the CBC runs Smart Ask, which is ia nation-wide high school trivia competition. I realize that most of you in the northern states which get the CBC tend to disdain Smart Ask; however, there were some very interesting gender-based statistics during Smart Ask's 2002-03 season (last year). During the last season, female players figured very prominently in the tournament. Of the 16 teams that made it to the 3rd TV round or later, the teams were comprised of 26 females and 24 males. Also, of these 16 teams, there were 4 all-female teams, compared to only one all-male team. Additionally, of the 4 semi-finalist teams, there were 6 males and 6 females. And finally, most observers considered to be the top individual performance of the season to be Sarah Kriger's (Yes, a female) 620-point game for Merivale High School in the final, including 350 points in the final "Lightning Round", in an 800-710 come-from-behind victory over Kennebecasis Valley High School. When I found these statistics last year, I was suprised, because I was used to the "majority of trivia players being male" mentality as well, even in Canada. But it's always nice to see the females do well :-) Andy Saunders as03nm_at_... ----- Original Message ----- From: tfmichael1 To: quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 12:35 PM Subject: [quizbowl] Article about gender disparity in academic competition Actually, it's mostly about WWTBAM, though various competitions are discussed, and it's an older article; but I can't recall any discussion of it, and it was new to me when I discovered it earlier today. Thought it might be of some interest here. American Prospect, "Are Men's Fingers Faster?" by Edward Cohn http://www.prospect.org/print/V11/11/cohn-e.html Tom Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: quizbowl-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:47 AM EST EST