236
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Pandantic@midwest.social to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Obviously this won’t work for all sports, but things like football, track, soccer, it would allow for de-gendered team, even allowing athletes with the skills but not the genetically-endowed physical attributes to have a place to play.

Note: I know very little about sports and being on a sports team, so please point out anything that doesn’t make sense.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] kava@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Women make up roughly 15% of US Chess Federation members. They make up roughly 1.5% of grandmasters.

That's an order of magnitude difference.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Here's a podcast about a study

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/mens-chess-superiority-explained-08-12-29/

Normally I'd just link studies...

But I feel like if you're this opinionated about things we figured out long ago, maybe listening would help more than reading.

Because it wouldn't have taken much for you to Google this at some point and realize we've been studying this for decades, and maybe, just maybe, science is better than your assumptions.

There are a lot of factors in play, and you seem to think it's because of...

What exactly?

Like it seems like you're just arguing women are bad at chess?

[-] kava@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I've read multiple papers on this topic. I'm a 2000 rated player and have tutored girls in chess. This is an interest of mine.

There is a very large gap in performance. The research overall implies a complex variety of factors. This includes what you mentioned, along with other inequities. It also includes the fact that women players are roughly 11 years younger on average and therefore haven't peaked yet, which will account for some.

But there is evidence that there is also an innate biological difference. Men score better on visuospatial intelligence tests when compared to women. Chess, especially at a high level, involves a lot of this type of thinking.

I'm not arguing that women are bad at chess. Humans are individuals and there are varying levels of players in both genders.

Just that if you look at the extremes (which the top chess players will be) you're going to see a higher level of males even if we fixed all of the inequities currently influencing the gender gap in chess.

We don't know if the 10x difference is 5% due to biology or 50% due to biology. But we know it's a non zero number

Essentially I used it as an example in the wider context of why we have women's leagues and men's league in sports.

this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
236 points (83.3% liked)

Showerthoughts

29522 readers
810 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    1. NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    2. Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    3. Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct-----

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS