Good points. I can see some of this. I also agree that “higher status” is not the way to describe it.
Society teaches us that women are fragile and that men should be careful not to hurt them. This is an observation about physical differences but it carries over to verbal interactions. I find myself being more careful with my words when I know I am communicating with a female. I get the impression that others are too.
My experience, here and elsewhere, is that on average women are more interested in exploring ideas and less in getting into a debate. A very high percentage of comments here basically say “Some aspect of the post above this one is wrong” so often my default reaction to a reply to one of my comments is to take the reply as a reason why I’m wrong. But I’ve found this default fails more often when the replier is female. Relatedly, I do find myself being less belligerent and aggressive in replies to women, but I think this is mostly me just matching their tone instead of automatically altering mine when I see they are a woman.
Another aspect of this issue, is that debating between males probably triggers egos more readily than debating between males and females, so perhaps some men here are less aggressive when arguing with females because females don’t trigger programming that evolved to guide us in battles for alpha male status, tribal supremacy and mating privileges. This might be one reason more female posters would help the community, egos care not for truth.
Women are a minority here and we are often reminded of this and encouraged to create a welcoming environment for them. I know of no other clearly defined group we have a similar community norm for.
True. But this isn’t really because women are special or unique among such groups, it’s because we aren’t even diverse enough to worry about other groups. There are at least enough women here to point out blind spots and excluding language. Not so for lots of other groups.
(I’ve felt like we do pretty well on neurodiversity issues, for similar reasons.)
They will not always act on this enthusiasm in an effective way.
Good points. I can see some of this. I also agree that “higher status” is not the way to describe it.
My experience, here and elsewhere, is that on average women are more interested in exploring ideas and less in getting into a debate. A very high percentage of comments here basically say “Some aspect of the post above this one is wrong” so often my default reaction to a reply to one of my comments is to take the reply as a reason why I’m wrong. But I’ve found this default fails more often when the replier is female. Relatedly, I do find myself being less belligerent and aggressive in replies to women, but I think this is mostly me just matching their tone instead of automatically altering mine when I see they are a woman.
Another aspect of this issue, is that debating between males probably triggers egos more readily than debating between males and females, so perhaps some men here are less aggressive when arguing with females because females don’t trigger programming that evolved to guide us in battles for alpha male status, tribal supremacy and mating privileges. This might be one reason more female posters would help the community, egos care not for truth.
True. But this isn’t really because women are special or unique among such groups, it’s because we aren’t even diverse enough to worry about other groups. There are at least enough women here to point out blind spots and excluding language. Not so for lots of other groups.
(I’ve felt like we do pretty well on neurodiversity issues, for similar reasons.)
Okay, I have seen this. Heh.