KoPo - Fair question. I read about a study done on intelligence and perceptions of intelligence of men and women. The study was looking at the idea that in general, people think men are more intelligent than women. Now obviously if you ask people if men are more intelligent than women, most people are going to say no, as it is not generally socially acceptable to say this, even if people think it.
So instead it asked people who was most intelligent - their mother or father. About two thirds of people said their father. Of course statistically, it should be about fifty fifty. So about fifty per cent saying their father is more intelligent and fifty per cent their mother.
MNers I think are generally more intelligent and thoughtful than a random population - so I wondered what people here would say - thats all. There are too few replies here to be statistically significant - but it is roughly fifty fifty so far.
Of course as some posters have pointed out the concept of intelligence can itself be problematic - does it refer to level of education for example, in which case amongst older people, men are generally better educated in a formal sense than women. Or is it about analytical skills, emotional intelligence, etc. But the question simply leaves it up to the person answering the question to make their own interpretaion of what intelligence is.
I thought it was an interesting study though, as it tries to reveal what people really think. But I am heartened, even if it isnt statistically significant, that MNers seem to have a more realistic view of men and women's intelligence. Of course I posted this in feminism, which also probably helped!