All The City Council Ladies: Austin City Council Brings In Purveyors Of Bad Science To Prepare Them For Female Majority
A few of those people who speak with authority -- without portfolio -- gave a little talking to to the staff who regularly interact with the City Council in Austin, Texas, after a majority of women were elected to it.
As the headline on the Austin Statesman article by Lily Rockwell reads:
As women take majority on Austin City Council, staff warned to expect more questions, longer talks
The advice-giver is Jonathan K. Allen, and here's a bit of his advice, fresh out of crap "science" written by Dr. Louann Brizendine and others (though I don't know where he picked it up -- off what bit of pavement where he perhaps also found a dropped quarter):
Women ask lots of questions. He learned a valuable lesson on communicating with women from his 11-year-old daughter, who peppered him with questions while they were on the way to volleyball. "In a matter of 15 seconds, I got 10 questions that I had to patiently respond to," Allen said. Allen says female City Council members are less likely to read agenda information and instead ask questions. He says it's tempting to just tell them to read the packet, but "my daughter taught me the importance of being patient" even when they may already know the answer to the question.
Here, from my column, is the actual science:
The notion that men are mute lunks while women go around yapping like Yorkshire terriers, a claim made by self-help authors including UCSF neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine (in various editions of "The Female Brain") just isn't supported by the research. In 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, Scott O. Lilienfeld and his co-authors note that when psychologist Dr. Janet Hyde crunched the data from 73 controlled studies, she found only a tiny overall difference in male and female talkativeness. And when psychologist Dr. Matthias Mehl and his colleagues gave 396 college students portable audio recorders to walk around with, they found that both men and women spoke about 16,000 words a day.
Where men and women do seem to differ is in emotional expression. There's a lack of conclusive research in this area, but it's clear that men have feelings -- deep feelings. They just don't always communicate them in a slew of words. Many seem to walk the talk -- showing their feelings instead of speaking them.
The city also brought along Dr. Miya Burt-Stewart, who owns a business development and marketing firm, to offer some training, and her session touched on the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" philosophy:
Openly acknowledge gender differences. Burt-Stewart says the author of the "Men are from Mars" book says men act on facts, women act on emotion. She also share such insights such as "Men have egos, women have wish lists," and that men are more likely to use a "dominating" management style than women, who use a "compromising" style. Men think women ask too many questions, Burt-Stewart said, and women often don't feel included. Men like acknowledgement, women want to be part of a team. Men, typically, communicate less often than females, she said.
Wrong again. See above.
Gotta love somebody who quotes John Gray as an authority on anything other than how to write a book that sells into the bajillions.
In fact, research on sex differences by psychologist Joyce Benenson, among others, finds that it is men who are the team players while women form dyads (groups of two). Men are likewise the cooperators and are okay with other men being the top dog whereas women tend to get insulted if any one woman has more power.
The article writer does no better on the science, but she's not professing to be science-based; she's just a journalist groping around trying to find a quote from some person with a Ph.D.
I read "Mars and Venus in the Bedroom".
What I got out of it, was if the man is horny and the woman isn't she should do it anyways so he won't feel bad.
If the woman is horny and the man isn't, they shouldn't do it so he won't feel bad.
NicoleK at May 14, 2015 1:50 AM
Hmm. Men forming teams, like just about every competive sport in history? Who would'a thunk that?
mer at May 14, 2015 3:07 AM
Not the woman who wrote "Lean In."
So many books out there tell people what to do based on no science or a quick graze of the science from media reports or papers they read but don't quite understand.
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2015 5:27 AM
Yet another politician in love with his own voice.
Seriously, he is talking to the staff at the capital. It doesn't matter if the new boss if male or female. They are the boss. Do what they ask (as long as it is legal). Like sitting in a room for a few hours to listen to one of them blather.
Ben at May 14, 2015 6:01 AM
If boys aren't asking questions, it's because they have learned that if they do ask a question, the answer will be "Sit down and shut up". I can assure you that boys are naturally no less inquisitive than girls.
Cousin Dave at May 14, 2015 6:14 AM
Cousin Dave:
But boys learn by "doing". A hot pot on a stove: mommy says "careful that's hot" a girls says "Ok" and leaves it alone. A boy says "Ok. What's hot?" and pulls on the handle to spill boiling water on him and realizes "wow, hot hurts, pot on stove is hot, hot pot hurts, don't pull the handle".
That's why boys get (or at least used to get) all kinds of scars and scabs and bumps and bruises and all his male friends would go "Cool" not "Did it hurt"
mer at May 14, 2015 6:32 AM
Mer is right on this. I taught my son several lessons by letting him get "hurt" under supervision.
Touching a 'hot' service after I told him it would hurt him and to not touch it. Going too fast w/o control on his skateboard.
Both left a valuable lesson that SOMETIMES Dad (responsible adult) gives good advice. Came in handy on his first jump out a plane when he realized that his buddy's chute was not fashioned properly (and thus maybe his own).
He remembered a lot of "You'll get hurt." advice at that moment (esp. from the Black Hats on board.) and grew up a lot in a second.
Bob in Texas at May 14, 2015 6:44 AM
This is typical City of Austin waste-of-taxpayer money b*llsh*t. I suspect that the speakers had some type of connection to the incompetent city manager, Mark Ott. You know, 'cause "Diversity!"
ahw at May 14, 2015 7:27 AM
What actually is true is that new members of City Councils will ask a lot more questions during presentations than the more seasoned members. It's all part of the learning experience. If the majority of the council was recently elected to their positions, then yes, expect those meetings to run a lot longer than in the past. However, once those members get more of an understanding of city government and start researching their packets before the meetings, the number of questions will decrease. This typically takes a couple of years. But Amy's right, this issue could apply to both men and women who are new members.
Fayd at May 14, 2015 9:39 AM
Has it gotten to the point were one may refer to Austin as "The People's Republic of Austin"?
I R A Darth Aggie at May 14, 2015 10:00 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/05/all-the-city-co.html#comment-6014528">comment from FaydGregg asks lots of questions, as does my mother. Why? Because they are curious and interested in history and how things work.
Amy Alkon
at May 14, 2015 11:58 AM
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