The document provides an overview of the discussion topics from a GE72B class. It includes announcements about upcoming events, topics to be covered such as sexual harassment and sports, and summaries of lectures on related subjects. A reading on effect size and statistical significance is presented, along with tips on writing opinion essays. Students are prompted with questions to consider for an upcoming paper on issues regarding gender and sports.

1. GE72B
Discussion#4
1/31/13

2. Announcements:
Miss Representation
Movie Night on Thursday Jan 31st at 7pm
Paper#1 due Feb. 7th

3. 1.Sexual Harassment
2.Sex and Sports
3.Effect size + statistical significance
4.Writing Tips

4. Abigail Saguy
Sex and Harassment Lecture 1/23/13
Main point: Conceptions of and laws against sexual
harassment depend on specific historic and cultural
contexts. By framing sexual harassment as
discriminatory, violence, or bad business practice will
lead to different consequences.

5. Why did Dr. Saguy compare USA and France?
-Major industrialized democracies
-Mission to advance universal concepts of justice and human rights
-Similar rates of females employment
-Sexual harassment is a problem
What methods did Dr. Saguy use to determine What is Sexual
Harassment?
-Interviews
-News media
-Legal research

6. Sexual Harassment
(Top 5 from www.NewsOne.com)
5. Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly was charged with sexual harassment and sued for $60 million
in 2004 by former producer for The O’Reilly Factor Andrea Mackris.
Mackris would claim that O’Reilly would sexually harass her and make
crude comments about masturbation, threesomes, and Caribbean shower
fantasies.
She would later settle out of court for an undisclosed amount of money.

7. Sexual Harassment
(Top 5 from www.NewsOne.com)
4. Bill Clinton
While Bill Clinton was running for president in 1991, Paula Jones, a former
Arkansas state employee claimed that Clinton pulled down his pants and
asked her for oral sex in a hotel room.
Clinton would wind up paying Jones just under one million dollars, despite
never admitting guilt just to keep her quiet.

8. Sexual Harassment
(Top 5 from www.NewsOne.com)
3. Mark Foley
Mark Foley was a Republican congressman from Florida who was also the
chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
Foley became infamous as the first politician caught up in the Internet era
of sexual harassment scandals. He was caught sending emails to male
congressional pages asking for fellatio and pictures of their penises. He
would also send sexually explicit instant messages to young males.
Foley would later enter rehab and claim that he was molested himself.

9. Sexual Harassment
(Top 5 from www.NewsOne.com)
2. Britney Spears
Britney Spears was sued by former bodyguard Fernando Flores for sexual
harassment.
Flores would claim that Spears made unwanted sexual advances to him,
exposed her private parts to him on numerous occasions, and said that
she would abuse her children numerous times.
Spears’ attorney accused the bodyguard of “trying to cash in on Ms.
Spears’ celebrity by making salacious claims of misconduct.”

10. Sexual Harassment
(Top 5 from www.NewsOne.com)
1. Clarence Thomas
When Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by former
president George H.W. Bush, old allegations of sexual harassment were
levied upon him from an attorney who worked for him at the Department
Of Education. The woman’s name was Anita Hill.
Hill was called to Senate to testify and said that Thomas made comments
about group sex, rape, bestiality, and bragged about his anatomy and
sexual prowess to her. She also said he once asked, “Who put a pubic hair
on my Coke?”
Thomas was later confirmed despite Hill’s testimony.

11. Clarence Thomas + Anita Hill: Sexual Harassment Trial
PBS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_emb
edded&v=1lEEDD2vxaE#!
Sex and Justice:
http:://www.anitahill20.org/
We still believe Anita Hill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_4hp_XYxI
Daily Show: Women in Combat
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-
28-2013/women-s-war-daily---military-brohesion

12. How is sexual harassment represented in the
media? In what ways does the media
downplay the seriousness of sexual
harassment? In what ways does the media
represent is as serious?

13. Saguy argues that the American mass media is
controlled by business and dependent on
advertisement revienues and are under pressure to
write stories that “sell” (Introduction, 11).
Why are sexual harassment scandals such a hot
commodity? Can you think of any particularly
egregious examples, either from the text or from
your own experiences of watching the news?

14. Saguy suggests that both the French and the
American feminists who worked to publicize and
discourage the practice of sexual harassment in law
and practice were limited by their “distinct political,
legal, and cultural, constraints and resources.”
What factors influenced these differing terrains?

15. What are the three “frames” for regulating sexual
harassment articulated by Saguy? How did each come
about? What are the advantages of each? What are the
disadvantages?
For example, Saguy suggests that American law
conceptualizes sexual harassment as “group-based”
disadvantage and French law as a form of “interpersonal
violence” what are the broad ramifications of each? How
have corporations been influenced by law and national
cultural context?

16. Saguy argues:“The formulation of sexual harassment as a
concept and a body of law at all, as well as the particular way it
is conceptualized, has important implications for gender
equality, for expectations and behaviors linked to sexuality, and
for what sort of social interactions are considered appropriate
or desirable in the workplace in particular and in other public
and private spheres more generally.” (Introduction, 4).
According to each frame, what behaviors are considered
appropriate or desirable in the workplace? Which types of
behaviors are considered inappropriate? Which are considered
inappropriate yet tolerated?

17. How has American sexual harassment law enabled
women to come forward with complaints of sexual
harassment? What barriers persist?

18. Women’s Sexual Harassment of Men:
The law proscribes gender-based sexual harassment, are men subject to
sexual harassment? How is it similar and how is it different?
How do gender roles influence men’s ability to “speak out” against sexual
harassment?
Does women’s lack of institutional power (gender-based occupational
segregation, “the glass ceiling,” “the glass elevator”) influence the power
landscapes that color sexual harassment practices and policies?
How do we understand gender equality as it pertains to the rights of men
to be free from sexual harassment?

19. Eric Villaine
Athletes’ Bodies, Sexed Bodies 1/29/13
Main point: From the beginning of the 20th century to
today, sex testing has been a controversial aspect for
elite female athletes. However, DSDs athletes don’t
have a competitive advantage compared to athletes
with favorable genetics.

20. Starting with Dr. Villain’s FINAL THOUGHTS
- Sports rules are arbitrary
- No competitive advantage between DSD athletes and athletes with favorable genetics
- Gender challenges are undesirable
- Biological parameters of sex are imperfect
- Privacy
Which if any of these points are you going to address in your
IOC paper? How and why?

21. What are the 3 relevant DSDs when considering
androgen advantage in sports?
Are transgender people allowed to participate in elite
athletics?
What are 3 pieces of evidence that support the idea that
intersexuality provides an athletic advantage?

22. M. Haselton REVIEW (what she wants you to know)
Evolutionary Record:
Decreasing sexual dimorphism in human lineage
Persistent asymmetries:
Size, parental investment, aggression
Effect Size….

23. Effect Size & Statistical Significance

24. Are men’s heights different from women’s heights?
Women’s mean Men’s mean
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height
Graph 2

25. Statistical significance: the probability of having
observed as large of a difference as the one you
observed if only chance were at work.
If the chances of observing a difference by chance alone is less
than 5% (denoted as p < 0.05), then we can conclude that
probably more than just chance was at work . Depends on
sample size.

26. Are men’s heights different from women’s heights?
How big is this effect?
Women’s mean Men’s mean
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height
Graph 2

27. Histogram: illustrates population distributions
Number of People
= 1 man
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

28. Histogram: illustrates population distributions
Number of People
= 1 man
= men
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

29. Histogram: illustrates population distributions
= 1 woman
= women
Number of People
= 1 man
= men
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

30. How big the effect of sex is on height
depends on height variation within sexes.
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

31. Measure of variation….
• Standard deviation (SD): = average amount by
which an individual is different from his or her
group mean
• sometimes written as σ (pronounced “sigma”)

32. Computing Standard Deviation
Population
Mean (average)
(Difference of each point from mean)^2
Square-root(variance)

33. Mean + SD
• “Normal distribution”/bell-shaped curve: standard deviation
tell us what percentage of people will be at a certain level of a
trait
• E.g., if women’s mean height is 63” and σ = 3” Then we can
assume that about 68% of women will be within one standard
deviation above or below the mean (i.e. between 60-66”)

34. Effect size
• Effect size: the degree of non-overlap between two
groups’ distributions on some variable (e.g., a trait like
height)
Effect size (d) = MeanGroup1 – MeanGroup2
σ
• Unlike a difference between means, an effect size takes
into account the amount of variation within each group

35. Graph 1
Women’s mean Men’s mean
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

36. Graph 2
Women’s mean Men’s mean
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

37. Graph 1+2
Women’s mean Men’s mean
= women
= men
Number of People
52” 54” 56” 58” 60” 62” 64” 66” 68” 70” 72” 74” 76” 78” 80”
Height

38. Where is the effect of sex larger— graph 1 or 2?
• The difference in means is exactly the same
• Variation within each group’s distribution differs—
and, therefore, the amount of distribution’s non-
overlap
• Effect of sex is MUCH larger in graph 2, but we would
never know if all we looked at were the means!

39. Effect size
• Less overlap  Larger effect size
• More overlap  Smaller effect size
• All else equal, HOW does increasing the difference between
means change effect size?
• All else equal, how does increasing the variation within
groups change effect size?

40. Effect size (d) Percent Non-overlap
% of non-overlap for effect 0.0 0%
sizes ranging from 0.0 to 2.0 0.1
0.2
7.7%
14.7%
0.3 21.3%
0.4 27.4%
0.5 33.0%
0.6 38.2%
0.7 43.0%
0.8 47.4%
Most psychological sex-
0.9 51.6%
differences d < 1.0
1.0 55.4%
But even when d = 1.0
1.1 58.9%
44.6% of men’s and women’s
1.2 62.2%
distributions overlap
1.3 65.3%
Take-home: even when a sex- 1.4 68.1%
difference is present, women 1.5 70.7%
and men are very similar—often 1.6 73.1%
much more similar than they 1.7 75.4%
are different. 1.8 77.4%
1.9 79.4%
2.0 81.1%

41. Effect size vs. statistical significance
• Larger difference is more likely to be statistically
significant.
• BUT statistical significance also depends on sample
size (how many people you collected data from).
• In a large sample of participants, a very small
difference will often be statistically significant.
• In a small sample of participants, a very large
difference will often be statistically non-significant.

42. • In psychology, effect sizes are interpreted
as follows:
0.2 = a small effect (15% non-overlap)
0.5 = a medium effect (33% non-overlap)
0.8+ = a large effect (47% non-overlap)

43. Writing Tips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liyFKUFCQno

44. Writing an Opinion Essay
Rhetoric – The Art of Persuasion
Ethos: writer’s voice (must be informed).
Logos: logical content of the argument and
logical conclusions.
Pathos: anticipated emotional reaction of
audience to content.

45. The Opinion Essay
• The topic is subject to controversy
• Expresses a compelling opinion that cannot necessarily be
proven to be true
• Purpose: to convince our reader that our point of view is
correct.
• Presents author’s point of view supported by reasons and
examples.
• The opposing viewpoint is also suggested, it goes with
arguments that show that it is unconvincing.

46. You May Use the Following
Expressions to Give Your Opinion
• As far as I am concerned, …
• I am (not) convinced that …
• In my opinion/view …
• My opinion is that …
• I (firmly)believe …
• I (definitely) feel/think that …
• I am inclined to believe that …
• I was interested/surprised/shocked to find out that…
• As I see it…
• It seems to me…

47. Opinion Essay
• Introductory paragraph with thesis
– Introduce the topic, the controversy
– Your clear opinion IS the thesis statement
• Body with supporting arguments
– Give reasoned arguments to support your opinion.
– Each argument forms a separate paragraph.
– Add details, facts and examples to support your arguments
– Present opposing view-points and refute
• Conclusion
– The main points of the essay are summarized and the author’s opinion
is restated in other words.
– May offer a solution or provides a warning of what will happen if your
advice is not heeded

48. Additional Resources
• http://www.slideshare.net/alexandraalvarez/how-to-
write-an-opinion-essay
• http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/a/
opinion.htm
• http://academicwriting.wikidot.com/opinion-essays
• http://www.ehow.com/how_5619030_write-
opinion-essay.html