Textual Analysis Of Steven Pinker- Sex Ed: The Sci

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Sex Ed: The Science of Difference - A Textual Analysis In Steven Pinker’s “Sex Ed: The Science of Difference” he discuses the possible reasons of why there are more men than women in the workforce of science, engineering, and technology research. He refers to the recent Harvard President Lawrence Summers’s comment on how unbalanced gender numbers in the science field could possibly be caused by innate sex differences (Pinker 795). Summers discussed this possibility at a conference on gender imbalances and was quickly misinterpreted to say that women are inferior to men (795). Pinker aids Summers speech by explaining that men and women obviously think differently about several things. He supports this with three possible reasons of why this is true: the persistence of discrimination, gender disparities arising in the absence of discrimination, and child rearing (796). He concludes his article by bringing up the subject of taboo, the opinion that letting certain subjects or thoughts entering your head is unacceptable and unforgivable (799). Pinker uses appeals to authority, logic, and emotion in order convince his audience of his correctness. Before Pinker begins the article, it is already established that he has authority by showing that he is an expert in many science fields, many of which are predominately male (795). Doing this allows him to make the misconception that he is a professional on the differences between men and women. He effectively leads his audience to believe what he wants through his appeal to authority and reliability. He uses his authority to back Summers’s idea of the possibility of innate sex differences. Summers’s claim has been confirmed by several economists that have done experiments on the subject. Though there are several factors into why there is an unbalance of gender in the science work force, the idea of innate sex differences

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