Speeches
The Fairness Hoax: Why the Case Against the SAT Defies Logic. Presented at the 2000 meeting of the Virginia Association Scholars. I am a defender of properly designed standardized tests. In fact, I can think of no assessment technique fairer than one that asks everyone to do the same thing under the same conditions. In this talk, I share my thoughts about the anti-testing crusade, focusing on the flimsy quality of its arguments and what I believe its true motive to be.
A Tale of Two Hormones. Presented at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). In 2000, the NAE organized a meeting around the topic, "Why Don't More Women Become Engineers." My answer in a few words: "Because they don't want to." I elaborate here.
What Psychologists Know that Feminists Won't Hear. Presented at the American Enterprise Institute, December 1999. A brief introduction to the psychological research that shows us that females know what they like to do ... and they don't like physics and engineering as much as males.
How Feminism Shortchanges Women. Presented at the XY Files, sponsored by the Independent Womens Forum, September 2000. This talk is from a meeting designed to offer alternate views from those presented at a simultaneous conference of the American Association of University Women. AAUW, of course, is well-known for its 1996 victim impact statement, How Schools Shortchange Girls. This brief talk is my response to the AAUW's obsession with parity in course-taking and occupational choice. (Note: My academic critique of the AAUW report is here.)
