I can see that drawing attention to gender differences could lead to more discrimination against women in the workplace. Spatial ability is relatively easy to conceptualize and measure, which can help to create super clear results like in the water level experiment. It’s much more difficult to assess more subjective skills that woman might be better at, like some aspects of communication.
From what I’ve read, spatial skills are likely to get less and less important in the workplace, as more and more physical work gets automated.
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I agree, some important qualities cannot be measured as easily as spatial visualization. Resilience, for example, is a trait women overall tend to have in greater abundance (or so the studies seem to show) than men. While this has been considered with reference to longevity, it is a quality that affects adaptation in all environments. That's just one example of something unquantifiable that can affect performance in everyday life. I think the brain is a new frontier...we're just on the threshold of understanding its complexity. I look to the work of pioneer neuroscientists such as Thomas Insel to lead the way toward understanding the relationship between the brain and behavior. Fascinating subject. That's why I keep reading and commenting :)
Don't know if this relates to resilience per se, but men do commit suicide 4-5 times more than women. I think they might just generally take things to heart more easily/deeply (unlike the stereotype would have it), and have extreme reactions, e.g. violence, be it against others or against oneself.
Never thought of it that way... certainly could be a reflection of resilience. Men also don't handle loss as well as women--death of a long-time partner and break-up of long-term relationships. May be another reflection of resilience (statistically).
Yup, I know that first-hand!