The Inequality Taboo

Charles Murray is back with a long piece on inequality.For those looking for something really politically incorrect,here it is:

Since we live in an age when students are likely to hear more about Marie Curie than about Albert Einstein, it is worth beginning with a statement of historical fact: women have played a proportionally tiny part in the history of the arts and sciences. Even in the 20th century, women got only 2 percent of the Nobel Prizes in the sciences—a proportion constant for both halves of the century—and 10 percent of the prizes in literature. The Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics, has been given to 44 people since it originated in 1936. All have been men.

The historical reality of male dominance of the greatest achievements in science and the arts is not open to argument. The question is whether the social and legal exclusion of women is a sufficient explanation for this situation, or whether sex-specific characteristics are also at work.

This long footnoted piece is worth your time.What will be interesting to see, in the future, is whether these numbers hold up.If more women go to college then men,which is true of the recent past,then future Nobel Prize winners should be mostly women,unless Murray is correct.