WOMAN ON TOP

Women’s IQ scores have risen above men’s for the first time, since IQ testing began a century ago. They have moved ahead by over five points this year. The finding has been made by James Flynn, the IQ testing guru from New Zealand. One possible explanation is that women’s lives have become far more demanding as they multitask more now. Another is that women have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men and are realising it now. “What we are seeing here is the impact of modernity,” says Flynn. “The brains of modern people are growing differently and showing increased cognitive complexity. This improvement is more marked in women than men because they were more disadvantaged in the past.”