Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

148 WHO STOLE FEMINISM?A 10-point gender gap in confidence in their abilities increases to 19points in high school." 39But again the reader is not informed that almosthalf of the high school girls (44 percent) chose the second possible response,"sort of true," which would have given a total of 67 percent girlsand 79 percent boys who essentially feel they are "good at a lot of things."If the "sometimes true/sometimes false" response is included, the resultsfor girls and boys are 95 percent and 98 percent, respectively, an altogethernegligible difference. 40The usual sequence of responses in suchsurveys, by the way, is "always true," "usually true," "sometimes true,""rarely true," and "never true." Can it be that the researchers suspectedsuch answers might not yield useful results? 41Why, for that matter, should someone who answers "sometimes true/sometimes false" to "I'm good at a lot of things" be counted as lacking inself-confidence? In fact, aren't the "always true" answers suspect? The 42percent of boys who say "always true" to "good at a lot of things" may beshowing a lack of maturity or reflectiveness, or a want of humility. Similarly,a boy who thinks of himself as "always" "happy the way I am" maybe suffering from a "maturity gap." Conversely, it is not necessarily amark of insecurity or low self-esteem to admit to feeling blue or notprodigiously proficient some of the time.The AAUW/Greenberg-Lake analysts may have been unaware that their"survey instrument" was seriously inadequate, and that their pollstersmight have been measuring something different from self-esteem or selfconfidence(e.g., maturity). Had the AAUW been less concerned to showthat girls are being "shortchanged," it would have supplemented its pollby consulting with other experts to arrive at more responsible conclusions.The AAUW study did find areas where boys and girls show nearly thesame levels of self-confidence, but they do not emphasize these findingsin the brochure, summary report, or documentary. On the "teacher isproud of me" statement, girls scored higher than boys (41 percent said"always true" or "sort of true," compared to 36 percent of boys). Virtuallythe same proportion of boys and girls said "always true" to the "proud ofmy work in school" statement (17 percent of girls, 16 percent of boys),and 32 percent girls and 34 percent boys said "sort of true."These results are available to anyone who cares to send in the $85 andsign the "Statement of Intent" form. Had the journalists who helpedadvertise the AAUW's message been less credulous—had they taken thetime to review how the questionnaire was designed and the results interpreted—theywould have seen that the study on which it was based wasa lot of smoke and mirrors.