Category Archives: Gender

Australian male violence against women: what the statistics say (and media should report)

Amid Australia’s justified concern over male violence against women, it seems worth  keeping in mind our achievements. Femicide, in particular, has more than halved in the past three decades. Prologue: Violence against women is a bad thing, and it’s still … Continue reading

Posted in Gender, Interesting Graphs, Media, Social Policy | 21 Comments

Critical race theory

‘Critical race theory’ is the perfect villain Christopher Rufo I wonder if I can keep this post short and sweet. Only by reminding myself that I’d like to write about his after much more consideration and effort. So can I … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Ethics, Gender | 11 Comments

Surveillance capitalism is helping the disadvantaged: who knew?

Here’s some claims about recent research on fintech and AI. Berg, Burg, Gombovic, and Puri (2018) suggest that digital footprints can help boost financial inclusion, allowing unbanked consumers to have better access to finance. Similarly, Frost et al. (2019) show … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Gender, Philosophy, Political theory | 7 Comments

Constant distractions are leading to major declines in top-level reasoning. What to do?

Till 20 year ago, IQ scores in the West increased about 3 points per decade ever since the 1920s, a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect”. That rise in IQ test scores, which have an average of 100 and a … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Employment, Gender, History, Inequality, IT and Internet, Media, Parenting, Public and Private Goods, Science, Social, Uncategorized | 20 Comments

The Weinstein case: is #Metoo delivering justice?

They got him! It cost millions of dollars in legal fees, and involved multiple trials, settlements, and dismissal of the worst charges, but they convicted Harvey Weinstein. A bit like a buck who is taken down by a pack of … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural Critique, Ethics, Gender, History, Politics - international, Politics - national, Social Policy, Society | 5 Comments

Intellectual authoritarianism: The Golden Age of Female Philosophy Edition

I do think that in normal times a lot of good female thinking is wasted because it simply doesn’t get heard. Mary Midgley I’ve written about the blokey intellectual authoritarianism of economics on numerous occasions, for instance writing here about how it … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Education, Gender, History, Philosophy, Political theory | 20 Comments

The Wage Penalty of Regional Accents

The Wage Penalty of Regional Accents Jeffrey Grogger, Andreas Steinmayr, and Joachim Winter #26719 Abstract: Previous work has documented that speaking one’s native language with an accent distinct from the mainstream is associated with lower wages. In this study, we … Continue reading

Posted in Economics and public policy, Gender | 1 Comment