It seems to me that for that to be so, there would need to be absolutely huge differences between men and women, so big that no one with any brain and any integrity would deny that men are much much much better scientists than women.
If you apply a high cutoff the difference is pretty big.
In the present case—as you would see if you looked at the study in question, which I therefore guess you haven’t—the level of ability we’re looking at (for “male” and “female” candidates) is not super-high, and in particular isn’t high enough for the sort of variance difference you have in mind to make a big difference.
These are candidates with a bachelor’s degree only, GPA of 3.2, and all the information in the application designed to make them look like decent but not stellar candidates for the job. We’re not talking about the extreme tails of the ability distribution here; the tails have already been cut off.
All the listed information is actually remarkable little. Like I said below the most “objective” thing on your list is the GRE score and even standardized test scores have high variance.
If you apply a high cutoff the difference is pretty big.
In the present case—as you would see if you looked at the study in question, which I therefore guess you haven’t—the level of ability we’re looking at (for “male” and “female” candidates) is not super-high, and in particular isn’t high enough for the sort of variance difference you have in mind to make a big difference.
These are candidates with a bachelor’s degree only, GPA of 3.2, and all the information in the application designed to make them look like decent but not stellar candidates for the job. We’re not talking about the extreme tails of the ability distribution here; the tails have already been cut off.
All the listed information is actually remarkable little. Like I said below the most “objective” thing on your list is the GRE score and even standardized test scores have high variance.