[Zarath]

How would we ever know if men actually were worse than women at math? There will always be a sufficient number of confounding variables as to have plausible deniability, not that it really matters. I think the line for when we're grasping at straws (or when we have enough evidence to draw a conclusion) is different for different people, which is why there is debate over such stupid things in the first place.

[wpietri]

I doubt we ever will know. But we certainly won't know until we eliminate the effects of the enormous confounding variable of our centuries of sexism.

[Zarath]

The point is that will literally always be a confounding variable.

[wpietri]

I and many others are working for that not to be the case.

[Zarath]

I get that, but when can you possibly say that centuries of sexism no longer have any effect, or centuries of trying to shift back to center have swung the pendulum in the opposite direction? Equality of outcome?

[wpietri]

When people treat the topic with the same sort of dry, academic interest that is now used for discussions like, "What was the most popular card game in 1850?"

Things change. E.g., there were many "important" theological and political questions in the middle ages that now seem impossibly distant, almost meaningless.

Gender is already becoming less meaningful. Maybe it will never become meaningless, but at the very least we can take it from "primary determinant of social status, acceptable behavior, allowed work, and economic outcome" to "about like eye color".