Madam, - I was disturbed to see female medical students characterised as tending to be "passive, rather than challenging and questioning" by Prof Tom O'Dowd of TCD (The Irish Times, August 21).
Passivity is not an innate or natural characteristic of girls. Such a stereotypical assessment of women's intellectual abilities should go unchallenged in a society where gender equality is an ideal.
It is ironic that, when girls are outperforming boys in examinations, it is the girls and not the boys who are characterised as intellectually inferior. It would be more accurate, surely, to criticise an examination system that encourages rote learning and discourages independent thought rather than pointing the finger at girls.
Am I alone in detecting nostalgia for the "good old days" when girls knew their place and the professions were dominated by men? - Yours, etc.,
SARA O'SULLIVAN, Department of Sociology, UCD, Dublin 4.