Testing the Creed

One of the basic tenets of the feminist movement is that there are no important inherent differences between the sexes. That creed is being challenged on two fronts:

LEARNING: Why Do Boys Do Better? Six years ago, the Denver-based Education Commission of the States began a Government-financed study known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. After analyzing tests given to nearly 900,000 students and young adults across the U.S., the commission's researchers concluded that men have a clear edge over women in most areas of academic achievement.

The commission's report shows that in science, mathematics, social studies and citizenship--four of the eight areas studied--the sexes are roughly equal at age 9. But by age 13, girls fall behind in these areas of study in a relative decline that continues through adolescence and into adulthood. In reading ability and knowledge of literature, girls are ahead of boys until age 17, but the same pattern of relative decline shows up as they grow older. Only in writing ability and music do females outperform males in later years.

Like some other studies, the National Assessment finds the male lead in mathematics "overwhelming." Nine-year-old girls do as well as boys in basic arithmetic but lag later in geometry and exercises dealing with measurement. Strangely, though girls can match boys in arithmetic and are better than boys at reading, they do worse on "word problems" involving simple computations, such as determining the lowest per-ounce price for a box of rice.

Dr. Roy H. Forbes, director of the study, believes the results reflect "subtle and not so subtle forces--both within the education system and society in general--that affect female education achievement."

SEX EQUALITY: Are Women Really for It? No, says Rutgers Anthropologist Lionel Tiger. His new book Women in the Kibbutz (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; $10.95), written with Israeli Anthropologist Joseph Shepher, argues that traditional sex patterns are so strong they have even overwhelmed the declared ideology of sexual equality in Israel's rural collectives.

Tiger and Shepher analyzed women's roles and attitudes in two of the three nonreligious kibbutz federations in Israel. They found that few women choose careers in the "male" world, even though kibbutz rules free them from child-rearing responsibilities and economic dependence on husbands (kibbutz income is apportioned according to need). Men hold most jobs requiring physical labor and executive ability, while women gravitate to such "feminine" fields as teaching and clerical work; 80% of the kibbutz women say they are satisfied with the situation. Some 30% of the kibbutz members involved in political activity are women, but most are clustered in low-ranking jobs. "The higher the authority of an office or committee," the authors report, "the lower the percentage of women in it." One surprising development: traditional attitudes toward marriage, romance and the family have reasserted themselves in the kibbutzim. The authors say kibbutz women are dressing stylishly, buying cosmetics and even using a health-care plan to pay for pedicures. In one federation, 25 of 81 kibbutzim have yielded to female pressure and allowed children and parents to live together. From 1961 to 1972 the marriage rate rose 15%. Over the same period the kibbutz birth rate increased to 27.2 per thousand, well above the national level; more than half of married kibbutz women have three or more children.

Tiger and Shepher conclude that the "aggressive search for sexual equality" has failed, probably because most women do not want it. Feminists will argue that Tiger found what he wanted to find --he believes man's emergence as a hunter millions of years ago resulted in a sexual "biogrammar," a predisposition pushing most women toward child rearing and most men into aggressive tasks. Yet his research does suggest that whatever the reason, traditional sex roles are proving stubbornly resistant to change.

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