Since IQ testing began a century ago, women have been as much as five points behind, leading psychologists to suggest genetic differences between the male and the female. That gap has been narrowing in recent years and this year women have moved ahead. The finding has been made by James Flynn, a world-famous expert on IQ tests. "In the last 100 years, the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women's have risen faster," said Flynn. " This is a result of modernity. The complex modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQs." One possible explanation is that women's lives have become more demanding as they multitask between raising a family and doing a job. Another might be that women have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men and are only now realizing it. Flynn also made the great discovery that scores in western countries increased by roughly three points a decade, which means people today get 30 more points than those living 100 years ago and that IQs can be improved. Flynn conducted new IQ tests in western European countries, America, Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia, which showed that the gap between men and women had become very small. In New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina, women scored slightly higher than men. Maybe because of this, many women have exchanged the role with their husband in family life. Helena Jamieson, 33, works a full-time job and her husband, Luke, 37, is a stay-at-home father. Helena said, "I'm definitely the more intellectual person in the relationship and I'm at work full-time rising up the career ladder while he is raising our daughter." She added, "In the past, men would look down on me, thinking that I was a woman and not as smart as them. But today, things have changed. I think women probably always know secretly deep down that they are the more intelligent ones-but as the gentler sex, we were just quiet about it in the past and let men believe that they ruled the world." In the psychologists' view, what led to women getting lower scores than men in IQ tests?
Family genes. Genetic differences. Educational levels. Job positions.