The relationship that is between expertise and age is not very straightforward. Time is an essential requirement for expertise. Not everyone becomes an expert on a certain subject as they older but everyone needs months, maybe even years of practice. Some researchers believe that practice is extensive. Several hours a day for at least 10 years but that only may be true in some areas. Surgeons have to have a lot of practice. I see an orthopedic surgeon for my shoulder and he had to do two surgeries. He had to pracptice the procedures I received. He isn't very old at all and he is a very good surgeon. Age doesn't necessarily determine if you are an expert on a subject but practice does. The longer you practice the more expertise you gain.
While I was reading about family skills it was interesting to see the discussion on expertise was focused on occupations such as surgeons, taxi drivers, and even pilots. They had many more male workers than female. Recently, we have seen two shifts occurred that changed this picture. The first shift was many more woman are working in occupations that were formally for men. A woman who was told she couldn't be a surgeon because she was a women became an anesthesiologist and developed a scale that has saved millions of newborns. Half the new medical doctors today in the United States are women. The second shift is the study of woman's work gained a new respect in today's society. In earlier generations, women would say they were either "just a housewife" or a "nonworking mom" but recently in today's society work at home has come to be important and both men and women do it. The reason this relates to expertise is because many wives and mothers aren't necessarily that great at that job and fathers had to take on the more domestic emotional roles. Nowadays the term "maternal instinct" is no longer assumed that every mother has it and are protective of every child. Many mothers experience postpartum depression, financial stress, or even bursts of anger and are unable to provide for the care that the child needs. I don't necessarily believe that the older a mother is the more patience they have. We all are human and we all go through experiences that cause us to grow up quickly and to act older than we should. When you lose a family member like a parent at a younger age like 14 and there is only one income you learn how to manage things like money and how to help your family whether it is to either get a job or help with siblings and maybe just around the house.
Developmentalists have not pinned down all the components of an expert in the emotional work of raising a family. I don't think anyone will be an expert in raising a family no matter if they find all the components of what makes an expert because every person is different and every person believes in what they want to believe. I know I am no expert at being a mom but I am learning more and more everyday.
Your comments about women and the chapter were interesting. I noticed the same thing. I think we live in a time in which the role of women is changing quite a bit. The text pointed out that women are scoring increasing higher on IQ tests and that this may be due to the fact that they are working more stimulating jobs that develop and require more forms of intelligence to perform. Hand and hand with this concept is the fact that being dumb, or acting dumb, was previously a valued quality in a women and that a college education was meant to be able to entertain guests or a husband, and not for the purpose of expanding the mind or working. Similarly other ideas existed simply due to a woman, being a woman. It will be interesting to see how this concept and he relationship between women and IQ plays out over the next generation.
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