James Flynn, an expert on IQ testing is soon to publish a new book that says women are now showing up as having higher IQs than men. Women it seems are more intelligent than previously thought. Excuse my yawning...

Research in this area is usually a tad spurious and media headlines can be misleading so I ignored this latest revelation for a while. But so many people have asked me about it that I decided to take a look. Wading through the 'battle of sexes' tags, 'women have always been more clever' and associated ephemera this is what I found:

James Flynn is indeed a recognised expert on IQ and he is an Emeritus Professor in Political Studies at University in New Zealand.  In other words, he deserves to be heard but not necessarily to go unchallenged. In his most recent research on I.Q., Flynn looked at scores from across Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Estonia and Argentina. He found that when modern IQ testing began in 1905, women trailed men by up to five points. But over time, that gap has more or less disappeared, and in some countries, women are now scoring better on these tests than men are. Flynn said that the increasingly complicated nature of our society accounts for the changes in these scores, but that more research is needed  to make any definitive claims. (My italics)

That's not quite how popular media have portrayed it, and also Prof Flynn does have a book to sell...
To continue reading please [Link Removed] 

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Here are three things that will make sure you are under the radar for serious promotion at work:
1) Dress for a party. We’ve all seen it - the dress or top that leaves little to the imagination with so much flesh on show that you wonder how it the dress stays put! The only plus to this is you can generally say anything you want about the men present as they will not be listening. Of course, the women will all hate you....
2) Keep making the tea/coffee/going for doughnuts! Mother everyone and always jump up to look after the more important folk. You’ll be seen as helpful, kind, Mumsy, a waitress, but not as important.
3) Keep apologising. Preface every comment with “I’m sorry to interrupt but could I just say...” Chances are no one much will listen so no chance of you being offered a plum role!
On the other hand, if you do want to be taken seriously at work, take a look at [Link Removed]
Best of luck!

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Cats and Change! (And You?)  

Today is recycling day in my village. We're very lucky and almost everything gets taken for recycling here by the local council. That's great but it does mean a lot of hustle and bustle on a Monday morning as I grab newspapers, bottles (!), plastic, milk bottle tops etc and make sure it's all in the correct boxes and drag them to the front of the house.

I was doing that today surrounded by two very jumpy cats (mine). They always get very edgy on recycling day and run back and forth checking out what I'm up to, then pretending not to notice and indulge in frantic grooming (classic displacement activity...), then pop back to look only to run away frightened again.

This morning, in between making soothing type noises, (the neighbours think I am mad) I found myself wondering why they are always frightened of the noise when it happens every week, (although I guess a week really is a long time in 'catolotics'.)

Cats and Humans Don't Like Change
And then I thought, actually the cats are behaving like most of us humans.

Very few of us when faced with a change think that it will be a good thing for us. We either indulge in some frantic grooming type behaviour, i.e. trying to pretend it isn't happening – denial; or we run about with our tails in the air with no clear purpose  assuming the worst will happen to us!

And very occasionally we are cool cats, and embrace it! We're bold and take a long hard at what is actually going on and make a more realistic assessment of what it might mean to us, and then get as much out of it as we can.

I haven't got any cool cats yet but I'm working on them! Here Kitty Kitty Kitty.....

What animal are you like when faced with something new? I like to think I'm more of a Tigger than an Eeyore...

[Link Removed] 

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I don't know about you but I really hate those networking events where you get one minute to put your pitch, then you listen to their one minute spiel, frantically swap business cards and move on. I never knowingly attend them but occasionally I get caught out and find myself in the circle of wordage doom being herded around like a sheep!

It definitely brings out my naughty child and I hear myself saying ridiculous things, which has conclusively proved to me that no one is really listening anyway, just concentrating on their up coming moment of glory! Sometimes, if I'm really lucky, I'll encounter a fellow renegade and we'll slope off together to chat in a corner and leave the one minute spielers to their fun.

So, what follows is nothing to do with awful networking events but is an exercise to give some thought to how you present yourself to people.

First Impressions
I occasionally use this exercise on my women's courses, like RenewYou; you might like to try it yourself.

Think of three scenarios when you might encounter someone on whom you wish to make a good impression. These might be:

a person you are attracted to
someone you think could be a great mate
a person who may be a potential employer or new client
your old teacher
your child's prospective in laws
new neighbours

In each scenario what are the key facts  about yourself you'd like to get across? What impression would you like to leave them with? Rather than sentences you could try out a few adjectives about yourself.

And then next time you get stuck in a circle of wordage doom you can easily fill your minute! But make sure you don't accidentally lurch into your 'person I fancy' spiel! Although, on second thoughts, it probably won't matter as very few are really listening!

Jane C Woods
Author of '[Link Removed] 

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I have a feature on my site called 'Inspirational Women'. Indeed, our own [Link Removed] was one of the very first women I ever interviewed for it! Naturally...

Recently I posted another blog inviting women to answer some of the same questions I ask my interviewees. There are some wonderful responses and I thought it would be great if I invited the good women of Fabulously 40 to comment too. So will you?

You don’t need to answer all the questions. Just choose the ones that appeal to you. I know what you have to say will inspire others!

[Link Removed] and and be INSPIRATIONAL!

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Hi!
I am soon to be interviewing the amazing Avivah Wittenberg-Cox,an expert of gender issues in the workplace. If you have any questions you think it would be great for me to ask please let me know.
[Link Removed]will take you to the new blog post and also a review of her latest book 'How Women mean Business'. Brilliant book by the way!
Looking forward to hearing from you! I know you’ll have some interesting questions to pose!
Thanks a million, Jane

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