"Women have needs that men don't have that sideline them from their career. Whether it be maternity leave, or unevenly distributed parental responsibilities." -- CitizenRob

I don't mean to be accusatory but part of the problem you're asking about is assumptions such as the one you make in the quote above. Raising children isn't a need that women have, it's a need that society has, and which women are, as we see in this quote, not just expected to do out of duty but out of some biological destiny. Men are just as capable of checking homework, making lunches, laying out clothes, drawing baths, changing diapers and rocking babies to sleep as women are. Indeed I think part of the solution is to begin thinking of childcare as the responsibility of the father as well as the mother, who should ideally distribute the labor however they see fit. And the woman whose husband stays home with the kids ideally shouldn't be thought of as someone who has abandoned her child in a forest.. I do work with women like that and I can assure you they didn't choose a mate based on his ability to be aggressive and take risks or whatever the stupid alpha male stereotype supposedly does that makes him incapable of child and homecare.

"my immediate reaction to the guy arguing that women have been proven not to have spatial skills by science would be to say "

Hmm.. no offense to the person who originally wrote about that but she mentioned that she herself has Asperger's. It's possible that she perceives others as lacking social skill because of herself lacking the ability to interpret social situations? I'm no expert on it. I only suggest that because she said that every single man she works with has Asperger's, and an error in perception seems much more probable than a 100% Asperger's rate in all other coworkers. Also the spatial intelligence situation, as I read it, I detected that the man may have been attempting irony. Maybe the main mentioned the study not in spite of but because of the spatial expert woman at the table, with well-meaning intention (meant to express: "Look at this stupid study; at this table we must know this study is wrong!"). Or he may have simply wanted to know how this coworker felt about the study, and was not intending to agree with it but only to state what it reported. The man should really have been more direct in either case ans not leave his intention open to interpretation. I avoid use of irony in the workplace unless it is with someone who I know well, and I'm certain they will understand my intention. I often clarify it afterwards anyway just to be certain. The point of communication is increased understanding, not a private feeling of cleverness.

Although I would never ever wear anything called a "sport skirt," and even though it is just a co-ed race which gives women a head-start, the idea of it as a chase would motivate me to run faster. It's a psychological trick, everyone runs faster when they think they're being chased (except in horror movies).

Tracy writes about fun things, I get so sick of reading comments complaining about it. Here, let's see how you like it: I read this blog entry, thought it was fun, clicked on the comments, and it wasn't to read your whining.