Irrefutable proof!

via feministing

According to the, ahem, "world's best newspaper," the reason that more men reach the top of their fields than women is because, get this, the women are stoopider.

Two leading scientists - both men - say male IQs are 3.63 points higher than females.

Psychologist John Philippe Rushton said this explains the "glass ceiling" phenomenon why men get promoted over women.

He said the study proves more men reach the top of their careers because they are smarter - and not because of sex discrimination.

Comparing mean or median scores is, of course, the same logic used by the geniuses who wrote The Bell Curve and ignores the remarkably similar distributions of IQ scores between the sexes.

As Vanessa at feministing points out, the real travesty is the academic called upon to criticize the study:

But the study was slammed by top psychologist Prof Alan Smithers.

He said: "Intelligence is hard to measure. The fact women have not progressed so far in their careers is down to lifestyle choices. I strongly disagree with Prof Rushton's conclusions - he is reading wrongly and too far into the figures."

That's right, ladies, you choose to be losers! Social science proves it!

Prof Rushton, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, admitted his research had come up with "unpopular conclusions". But he added: "People should not be made to feel afraid to study controversial issues.

"We have to find the truth about the normal distribution in society.

"It's not right to simply say: 'It must be discrimination and don't dare say anything else'. One should really look at the facts."

Like I'm sure Professor Rushton did - because looking at purely demographic variables constitutes the known universe of what may affect any individual's chances in life. I'm willing to bet Professor Rushton, or anyone else, for that matter, that if you included an individual's IQ in the panopoly of variables used in trying to explain the difference between male and female earnings, it wouldn't matter a lick in explaining that difference.

And don't you think that when discussing the pernicious effects of discrimination - or simply discussing that women are stoopider - The Mirror would've tried to find a woman academic to comment? Well, it is The Mirror...