When it comes to comparing men and women in terms of potential, ability, capacity, prospects, intelligence and some other considerations, oftentimes, there is no consensus, and there is usually equal support on both sides of the divide.

In many parts of the world, men are seen to be on the upper rung of the ladder when it comes to gender comparison, while women are (often) treated as being second in line, and in certain places, relegated to the background. This is further strengthened by certain religious, cultural and societal beliefs.

But beyond these, there are reports by some experts that women are more intelligent than men, lending some support to the popular saying that what a man can do, a woman can do better.

Some of the reasons why women are considered to be more intelligent include women having better memory than men, smarter, being able to handle stress better than men, having the ability to multi-task more, being better leaders, more careful drivers, better students by being more focused and being more frugal.

In a study published in the British Medical Association’s Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and reviewed on Mail Online, researchers found that women were more intelligent than men. In their examination of 600 Netherlanders through a standard intelligence quotient test, which is a measure of a person’s reasoning ability, they found that the female participants were quicker and smarter than the men.

The study adds that the reason for the difference in their intelligence is not social but biological, noting that this could be the reason why girls now do better at school than boys.

Apart from these, it was also gathered that 33 per cent of women, compared to 28 per cent of men, had good speed in their replies in the test, while four in ten women had a good memory compared to three in ten men.

According to an American expert in intelligence research, Prof. James Flynn, women score higher than men when it comes to intelligence quotient. He noted that when the test was conducted in Europe, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, women maintained higher scores than the men.

Flynn, an emeritus professor known for his interest in matters relating to IQ, observed that even though the scores of both sexes in IQ test have been rising for a long time now, women’s scores have risen faster than men’s. He explained further that some of the responsibilities surrounding womanhood could have brought out the best in them.

He said, “In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen, but women’s have risen faster; the demands of juggling family life and building a career have made women more intelligent.

“This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ. This improvement is more marked for women than for men because they were disadvantaged in the past.”

According to him, it is instructive to note that women’s higher intelligence is not due to the brain formation or some changes in the brain, but that it is largely dependent on how the two sexes approach the modern problems that confront the world per time.

He added, “It is this that may give us a clue as to why women are not only catching up with men but, in some places, starting to overtake them. There may be something innate about the way women’s brains are put together or the demands placed upon them that allow them to cope with complexity and the need to systematise.”

However, the factors identified by these experts are independent of heredity and some other external factors, like income, condition of living, etc.

A professor of psychology at the University College, London and the Norwegian Business School, Adrian Furnham, told Psychology Today that the observable sex differences in both genders start to manifest from infancy, all of which he said might not be unconnected with their traits and what becomes of them later.

He noted that while boys are more active, show narrow interests, spend more time awake, and are more interested in things, systems and vehicles, girls are well coordinated, have better hearing, show wider interest in things, more vocal, make more eye contact, more interested in social and emotional stimuli, more sensitive and acquire language earlier.

He explained further that girls show more concern for others and are better at reading other people’s minds which make them to have more instinct.

But, a neurologist, Dr. Adilkaibe Ezeala, said even though it is not ethical to do such comparison, it is not true that females are more intelligent than males, saying most of the studies that came out with such reports were flawed.

“There is no study till date that showed that females are more intelligent than males. The same thing with brain size, there is no evidence to show that males have bigger brains than females; the size of the brain is proportionate to the body size of individuals,” he added.

Ezeala explained that before making such conclusions, natural gifts of individuals and other confounding factors would have to be explored, “which makes it more difficult to measure intelligence and it is not even ethical to do such (gender) comparison.”

He concluded that everybody, regardless of gender, has strengths and what they can do better than others.

Also, a consultant endocrinologist, Dr. Olamoyegun Michael, said the reasons people adduce to such claims are more of environmental factors rather than biological factors. “There are no biological factors, because I’ve not come across any biological explanation for it, but maybe environmental factors. In the case of female students doing better than male students, it has to do with their comparative levels of commitment, focus and what the two sexes do with their time,” he added.

However, in the view of Prof. Oni Fagboungbe, a consultant psychologist, individual’s intelligence level depends on the quality of the brain cells and not about the gender of the individual. He noted that women tend to be better than men in certain areas and men tend to be better than women in some other areas.

He said, “IQ is determined by the quality of the brain cells of individuals. So, it is a function of the quality of those cells of individuals. That is why in some countries, they make sure their young ones do not lack nutritious food so that it can lead to qualitative brain cells and when the brain cells are of high quality, the possessor is bound to be intelligent.

“There are certain areas of life that are very feminine in nature and a woman would seem to have an upper hand while men do better than women in some other things. So, the variation in intelligence is not due to the sex but the quality of the brain cells. So, in certain situations, you may see women displaying very high intelligence more than men and vice versa.

“In fact, psychologists even have a problem with the universal definition of intelligence because there were many perspectives to it, but the consensus is that intelligence is people’s ability to solve a specific problem in a specific situation, and IQ is measured by mental age, divided by chronological age and then multiplied by 100. So, brain cell is what matters, not gender.”

Source: PUNCH, 2016