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The Documentary: Smart women, male genius

Smart women, male genius

05/10/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Smart women, male genius

Science writer and broadcaster Angela Saini debunks the myth of male genius

Award-winning science writer and broadcaster Angela Saini debunks the myth of male genius.

Think of a genius. If that person is a man - be it Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking or Isaac Newton, for instance - you are not alone. Five hundreds years ago a Spanish physiologist declared that genius was stored in the testicles. Even today, studies have shown that people associate men with genius more than women. Award-winning science writer and broadcaster Angela Saini wants to know why.

Saini examines why people are so reluctant to credit intellectual brilliance to women - now and throughout history. Einstein, for instance, needed a woman’s help. She hears about a proposal for making the concept of genius more inclusive and discusses the impact on girls in school when teachers take gender out of classrooms.

Guests include Sarah-Jane Leslie, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, in the United States; psychology professor Christia Spears Brown from Kentucky University; and Australian feminist and writer Clementine Ford.

Saini is also joined by people who have been labelled a genius - including scientist and writer Dr Camilla Pang, who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder aged eight; writer, mathematician and concert pianist Dr Eugenia Cheng; teenager Monty Lord - who wrote a best seller when he was seven and holds five world records for memory; and eight-year-old Lillyan Lord Lancaster, who took a Mensa test when she was just five and achieved an IQ score of 158.

(Photo: Lillyan. Credit: Marya Lord Lancaster)

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