Women, Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal

Are women more prone to paranormal and pseudoscientific belief than men?

Superficially and stereotypically, it seems that this is ‘true’. Men buy the porn mags and women buy the fashion and gossip magazines, complete with astrology columns. There are more witches than warlocks, and more wise women than wise men. ‘Masturbation causes blindness’ is an old wive’s tale, not an old husband’s tale. Psychics, sensitives and intuitives are more often women than men, and women visit naturopaths, homeopathists and iridologists while men won’t even go to the doctor. The fortune teller is the woman with the big hoop earrings, not a man with a big crystal ball. Angels and fairies have golden locks, not cocks. Men drink beer and women read tea leaves. Women are the perpetrators and consumers. After all, Eve did get us booted out of Paradise…bitch…

But, as the good skeptic asks, ‘Where’s the evidence?’

If it’s just a matter of, ‘In my experience’, then that’s not fact. Let’s not be ethnocentric either, in many non-Western communities, both men and women are equally socialized into paranormal beliefs.

Now it’s my turn to generalize. ‘In my experience’, there are as many high priests as high priestesses, as many gods as goddesses, as many male ghost hunters as female ghost hunters, for every Mary there’s a Jesus, for every mermaid a merman, for every Sylvia Browne a John Edward, and for every banshee a bigfoot. If we want to stereotype, there seem to be more male than female Evangelists, gurus, evil doctors, vampires, zombies, werewolves, devils, demons, elves, and aliens; Elvis and Jim Morrison are still alive, it’s the Messian, not the Missus, they’re Men, not Women in Black, and more people know of Nostradamus than Mother Shipton.

A belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific isn’t gender exclusive, or necessarily gender preferential.

As human beings, we are prone to belief in the paranormal and pseudoscientific.

There’s a certain equality to bad thinking.

But…generalizing again, there do seem to be more male skeptics than female skeptics, or at least at the conferences, meetings, seminars and other gatherings that I’ve attended.

There are more of us than you think!

I’m particularly interested in promoting women in science, women in academia, women in skepticism and women in the arts. If you have a website or blog that treats these areas, let me add you to my blogroll!