Who’s Smarter Men or Women? Science Answers The Age Old Question

New research is providing answers to the  age-old, controversial question: who is smarter, men or women? A new study has been released  (drumroll,) and it’s looking like the ladies have the brain game on lock, establishing that women now score higher on IQ tests than men.

The author of the study, James Flynn, a New Zealand-based researcher known as an expert in IQ rating and testing , said that over the past century, women have trailed slightly behind men in IQ testing scores, at times by as much as five points. However now, Flynn says, women have closed the gap and even inched ahead in the race of intelligent sexes.

“Over the last century, people in the developing world have been gaining about three IQ points on average every 10-20 years, but women have been gaining faster, roughly  about 4 to 5  points on average every testing cycle.”  “This is the result of modernity, even in countries where women do or do not have  full social equality, women have still caught & surpassed  men [in IQ testing].”

The fluctuations, Flynn said, can be explained by changes in opportunity and education that have transpired in the last century. For example, education systems have migrated from rote memorization, to  more of an emphasis on improving logic and analytic skills, & women have definitely taken advantage of that shift.

Flynn  collected data from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Estonia and Argentina on the standard IQ rating system called the Raven test. In each country, at least 500 men and 500 women were tested, most between the ages of 18 to 25.

“As we enter the modern worlds, our minds change just as our automobiles have changed,” Flynn said. “Where women can have an equal chance to interface with the modern world, they equal on IQ and surpass on academic performance.”

Deciding which is the smarter sex is an ever-controversial topic of discussion and scientific research. Studies of animals and humans have found definite differences between males and females in things like brain size & reaction to certain stimuli, verbal & spatial abilities, and certain brain disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia. Because the level of  intelligence of each sex seems to ebb and flow as we progress socially, science is still working to definitively answer the question of who is smarter.

For now though, the ladies have the game on lock.

Flynn plans to publish the results of his studies in a book this September.

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