I relayed that claim from Greg Cochran a while back, but inspired by this Half Sigma post I decided to present the actual numbers from the GSS.

Row: CHILDS

Column: WORDSUM

Control: SEX

Summary Statistics for SEX = 1(MALE)
Eta* = .06 Gamma = -.02 Rao-Scott-P: F(80,38080) = 2.10 (p= 0.00)
R = -.04 Tau-b = -.01 Rao-Scott-LR: F(80,38080) = 2.02 (p= 0.00)
Somers’ d* = -.01 Tau-c = -.01 Chisq-P(80) = 213.72
Chisq-LR(80) = 206.45
*Row variable treated as the dependent variable.
Summary Statistics for SEX = 2(FEMALE)
Eta* = .12 Gamma = -.08 Rao-Scott-P: F(80,38080) = 4.34 (p= 0.00)
R = -.11 Tau-b = -.06 Rao-Scott-LR: F(80,38080) = 3.85 (p= 0.00)
Somers’ d* = -.06 Tau-c = -.06 Chisq-P(80) = 485.56
Chisq-LR(80) = 430.81
*Row variable treated as the dependent variable.
Summary Statistics for all valid cases
Eta* = .08 Gamma = -.05 Rao-Scott-P: F(80,38080) = 4.70 (p= 0.00)
R = -.08 Tau-b = -.04 Rao-Scott-LR: F(80,38080) = 4.33 (p= 0.00)
Somers’ d* = -.04 Tau-c = -.04 Chisq-P(80) = 522.38
Chisq-LR(80) = 481.45
*Row variable treated as the dependent variable.

I’ve come across that “Firepower” character in the comments section at Overcoming Bias, there as well he seemed quite sure of himself in the absence of supporting evidence.

At Sister Y’s suggestion I am showing some actual tables. Showing all the columns would take up more space than wordpress easily permits, so I have grouped buckets with WORDSUM(r: “BOTTOM” 0-4; “LOWER-MIDDLE” 5; “MIDDLE” 6; “UPPER-MIDDLE” 7; “TOP” 8-10).

First men:

Statistics for SEX = 1(MALE)
Cells contain:
–Column percent
-Weighted N		 WORDSUM
1
BOTTOM		 2
LOWER-MIDDLE		 3
MIDDLE		 4
UPPER-MIDDLE		 5
TOP		 ROW
TOTAL
CHILDS 0 31.1
865.9		 32.0
603.8		 34.6
843.6		 33.5
601.6		 32.4
863.0		 32.6
3,778.0
1 16.8
468.4		 14.5
272.7		 14.8
361.6		 13.3
239.6		 13.5
360.3		 14.7
1,702.7
2 20.6
575.1		 24.2
457.3		 23.3
567.1		 23.9
429.0		 26.0
692.0		 23.5
2,720.6
3 13.0
361.8		 13.5
255.0		 14.9
363.1		 15.1
272.2		 14.9
397.5		 14.3
1,649.6
4 8.4
235.4		 7.5
140.7		 6.6
160.5		 8.0
144.7		 7.4
197.1		 7.6
878.3
5 4.3
118.8		 4.3
80.2		 3.0
73.0		 3.8
67.8		 2.8
74.4		 3.6
414.1
6 2.4
67.0		 2.0
37.8		 1.2
28.7		 1.0
18.5		 1.4
37.6		 1.6
189.6
7 1.5
41.6		 .6
12.1		 .7
17.8		 .9
15.3		 1.0
26.4		 1.0
113.3
8: EIGHT OR MORE 1.9
54.0		 1.4
26.3		 .9
21.3		 .5
9.5		 .6
14.8		 1.1
125.8
COL TOTAL 100.0
2,788.0		 100.0
1,886.0		 100.0
2,436.7		 100.0
1,798.1		 100.0
2,663.1		 100.0
11,571.9
Means 1.92 1.82 1.67 1.74 1.74 1.78
Std Devs 1.93 1.79 1.67 1.67 1.65 1.75
Unweighted N 2,659 1,784 2,308 1,664 2,635 11,050

Then women:

Statistics for SEX = 2(FEMALE)
Cells contain:
–Column percent
-Weighted N		 WORDSUM
1
BOTTOM		 2
LOWER-MIDDLE		 3
MIDDLE		 4
UPPER-MIDDLE		 5
TOP		 ROW
TOTAL
CHILDS 0 20.5
587.5		 22.2
519.3		 21.9
702.5		 25.6
599.1		 27.1
930.7		 23.6
3,339.0
1 18.0
515.7		 16.4
383.6		 16.9
541.9		 15.2
354.8		 15.0
514.0		 16.3
2,310.0
2 21.0
602.0		 26.1
609.2		 28.0
894.9		 26.7
624.7		 27.8
954.0		 26.0
3,684.9
3 15.4
441.9		 17.0
397.4		 18.0
575.1		 16.2
379.6		 16.2
556.0		 16.6
2,349.9
4 9.9
283.8		 9.4
219.1		 8.2
263.4		 8.6
201.5		 8.3
286.4		 8.8
1,254.3
5 5.8
165.1		 3.6
84.4		 3.6
115.4		 3.7
86.3		 2.9
100.0		 3.9
551.3
6 3.1
88.1		 2.1
49.4		 1.7
54.2		 1.9
43.5		 1.1
38.7		 1.9
274.0
7 2.3
65.1		 1.1
25.0		 .7
23.4		 1.2
29.0		 .7
23.3		 1.2
165.8
8: EIGHT OR MORE 4.2
120.0		 2.1
47.9		 1.0
31.0		 .8
18.3		 .8
28.7		 1.7
246.0
COL TOTAL 100.0
2,869.2		 100.0
2,335.4		 100.0
3,201.8		 100.0
2,336.9		 100.0
3,431.9		 100.0
14,175.2
Means 2.42 2.12 2.01 1.96 1.85 2.07
Std Devs 2.11 1.80 1.64 1.71 1.62 1.79
Unweighted N 3,059 2,371 3,226 2,336 3,531 14,523

Now everybody:

Statistics for all valid cases
Cells contain:
–Column percent
-Weighted N		 WORDSUM
1
BOTTOM		 2
LOWER-MIDDLE		 3
MIDDLE		 4
UPPER-MIDDLE		 5
TOP		 ROW
TOTAL
CHILDS 0 25.7
1,453.3		 26.6
1,123.1		 27.4
1,546.0		 29.0
1,200.8		 29.4
1,793.7		 27.6
7,117.0
1 17.4
984.0		 15.5
656.3		 16.0
903.5		 14.4
594.4		 14.3
874.4		 15.6
4,012.6
2 20.8
1,177.1		 25.3
1,066.5		 25.9
1,462.1		 25.5
1,053.7		 27.0
1,646.1		 24.9
6,405.4
3 14.2
803.7		 15.5
652.5		 16.6
938.1		 15.8
651.8		 15.6
953.4		 15.5
3,999.5
4 9.2
519.2		 8.5
359.8		 7.5
423.9		 8.4
346.2		 7.9
483.5		 8.3
2,132.6
5 5.0
283.9		 3.9
164.6		 3.3
188.4		 3.7
154.1		 2.9
174.4		 3.7
965.4
6 2.7
155.1		 2.1
87.2		 1.5
82.9		 1.5
62.0		 1.3
76.3		 1.8
463.5
7 1.9
106.8		 .9
37.1		 .7
41.2		 1.1
44.3		 .8
49.7		 1.1
279.1
8: EIGHT OR MORE 3.1
174.0		 1.8
74.3		 .9
52.3		 .7
27.8		 .7
43.5		 1.4
371.8
COL TOTAL 100.0
5,657.2		 100.0
4,221.4		 100.0
5,638.6		 100.0
4,135.0		 100.0
6,094.9		 100.0
25,747.1
Means 2.18 1.99 1.86 1.87 1.80 1.94
Std Devs 2.04 1.80 1.66 1.69 1.64 1.78
Unweighted N 5,718 4,155 5,534 4,000 6,166 25,573