As Harvard University students kick off a new school year, they find themselves at the center of a heated debate about one of higher education’s longest-standing traditions: gender-segregated social life.

The university announced in May that, starting with Harvard’s class of 2021, it will effectively ban students from participating in clubs that exclude people of other genders. The move is intended primarily to force the integration of women into Harvard’s finals clubs, the exclusive groups that dominate much of campus social life and serve as powerful networks for members and alumni.

But the new policy will apply to sororities, fraternities, and other single-gender clubs as well. That’s upset some critics, who argue that the decision will end up penalizing women-only spaces, which offer young female students unique sources of support and community.

Such concerns are understandable. But there are good reasons for both men and women to support the university administration’s ban—not least because we might all be better off if we stop dividing our social lives along gender lines.

Separating groups by gender inevitably affects the way we perceive each other and ourselves, according to Lise Eliot, a neuroscientist and the author of Pink Brain Blue Brain, a book on how society shapes differences between young girls and boys.

“It’s simple math; the more time you spend with people of the same gender, the more similar you will become to each other and the more different you will become from the other,” Eliot says.

Research has shown that men and women do not fundamentally differ in personality, cognitive ability or leadership skills. Boys and girls begin development with equivalent ability in math and exhibit similar levels of assertiveness and competitiveness. But differences become more profound as children are socialized to exhibit contrasting characteristics, says Eliot.

According to one meta-analysis, boys and girls test equally high in math until high school, when boys begin to slightly out-perform girls. This difference has less to do with innate ability, and more to do with the way female and male students are treated in middle and high school, according to many psychologists.

“Nature is just a little tip, a little bias in one direction,” Eliot says. “Most of the gender differences are learned, are societal and shaped through culture, and a huge part of that culture is gender-specific grouping.”

The fact that we consistently divide people along gender lines creates powerful biases, according to psychologist Rebecca Bigler of the University of Texas, who has been studying gender for two decades. In one study, Bigler had teachers split students into red and blue shirt categories to simulate the arbitrary ways in which gender differentiates girls from boys. Bigler found that, after four weeks, students had formed powerful alliances according to their separate factions. Reds were more likely to have a high opinion of reds, and blues were more likely to have a high opinion of blues.

“We found that when the teachers labeled those groups, just like in the case of gender, the kids became biased,”Bigler told Michigan Radio.

The process of gender socializationdoesn’t stop as we get older. While coed colleges are now the norm in the US, some social spaces on campus remain gender-segregated. Sororities and fraternities in particular have proved to be an enduring tradition.

Many loyal Greek members note that their individual fraternities and sororities defy stereotypes. But in the popular imagination and pop culture, fraternity brothers are boisterous, rowdy, beer-swigging paragons of masculinity. Think Animal House and Old School.Sorority sisters, meanwhile, have a reputation for being peppy, flirty, and concerned with traditionally feminine pursuits like makeup and fashion.

These stereotypes are not based on innate gender traits, and many college students involved in Greek life buck such conventions. But the very act of dividing young men and women into separate groups may push them—sometimes unintentionally—to conform to prescribed gender norms.

Moreover, psychology suggests that the more people identify with characteristics associated with their gender, the more likely they are to think of the other gender as profoundly different—reinforcing the idea that men and women cannot hope to understand one another. As psychologist Janet Shibley Hyde notes, communication between men and women is often hampered by the belief they have irreconcilable points of view. This problem has major repercussions for the success of personal relationships or workplace equality.

If other schools follow Harvard’s lead and do away with single-gender social clubs, they may well put students on the path to better understanding and empathizing with one another. The policy could help combat on-campus rape and sexual assault, too. As neuroscientist Eliot writes in a recent op-ed for The New York Times, “If your pledged ‘siblings’ include both brothers and sisters, chances are greater you won’t objectify and molest each other than if the other sex is some distant, deeply different species to be conquered by the end of a wild evening.”

Mixed-gender groups may also be moreeffective at promoting women’s issues. Peggy Klaus, an executive coach and leader of corporate training programs, makes such a case in another recent Times op-ed. Klaus argues that women’s leadership conferences often wind up being futile when they exclude men. That’s because, particularly in traditionally male-dominated industries, men are more likely to be in the kinds of powerful positions that could facilitate greater gender equality.

“Expecting biases and policies to change based on occasional training and motivational speeches is simply ridiculous,” Klaus writes. “So is making women the sole torchbearers for changing the culture.”

The same logic could apply to women’s leadership groups such as Harvard’s Seneca, for example, a group founded in 1999 with the explicit purpose of creating a strong network of female students and helping them to pursue leadership roles on campus. Undoubtedly, many women benefit immensely from this kind of atmosphere. But it’s also possible that an organization with a mission to challenge sexist standards may benefit from having men around.

It’s unrealistic and ineffective—not to mention unfair—to expect female students to shoulder the entire burden of changing culture norms on campus. Male students can and should help the effort by holding themselves and others to higher standards.

None of this is meant to diminish the importance of women’s spaces. But it’s also true that gender-segregated groups do not reflect the realities of the world we live in. And they also frequently fail to make room for individuals who fall somewhere along the gender spectrum, instead confining campus communities to a binary system.

Consciously or not, college groups based on gender can wind up emphasizing and reinforcing differences. If we want real gender equality, we could start by spending more time together rather than apart.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday disclosed that he and the United States are ready to drive ISIS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.

Erdogan said US counterpart Barack Obama floated the idea of joint action against the militants when they met at the G20 summit in China.

“Turkey will have no problem with such action,” Erdogan said.

Last month Turkey launched an operation inside Syria, targeting both ISIS and Kurdish rebels.

Turkish-backed militia drove ISIS from the border town of Jarablus, but Turkey has also been concerned with checking the advance of Kurdish forces whom it regarded as terrorists.

The offensive continues, and Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkish forces might push deeper into Syria after securing a stretch of land along the border.

Canikli also said 110 Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters had been killed since the operation began.

Russia, who is allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it was deeply concerned by the Turkish advance.

Erdogan’s comments on Raqqa were published in Turkish media, but there has been no confirmation from the US.

“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa. We said this would not be a problem from our perspective,’’ he said, stressing, “More discussions would follow.”

Raqqa’s fall was a key point in the rise of IS as it seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, and is now considered the jihadists’ de facto capital.

Between 250, 000 and 500, 000 people are still thought to live there, with brutal stories emerging of the treatment of civilians.

The filing is the latest in what's turning out to be one of the slowest tech IPO market ever. Only 5 tech companieshave gone public this year.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the most interesting numbers from Coupa's filing:

• It had $83.6 million in revenue in 2015 (up 66% year-over-year)
• It lost $46 million last year. But its net loss is shrinking, as it lost $24.3 million in the first six months of this year, slightly down from the $25.1 million net loss recorded in the same period of last year.
• It spent 65% of its revenue on sales and marketing. That dropped to 58% in the first six months of this year.
• Holds ~$80 million in cash as of July 2016. Coupa's raised $169 million in total in private funding.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said on Thursday that Donald Trump confirms his belief that the Republican is not qualified to be president "every time he speaks," adding that he was confident Americans would ultimately reject the brash billionaire on Election Day.

Ending his final presidential trip to Asia, Obama said his meetings with foreign leaders during stops in China and Laos had illustrated that governing is "serious business" requiring knowledge, preparation and thought-out policies that can actually be implemented. He urged Americans not to allow the "outrageous behavior" seen amid the campaign-season din to become the new normal.

"The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions to what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas," Obama said.

Throughout the campaign, Obama has repeatedly denounced Trump and deemed him "unfit" to serve as commander in chief, while arguing that his controversial positions and comments are a step beyond what Republican nominees have embraced in the past. Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton and has said he plans to campaign full-force for the Democrat before the Nov 8 election.

Obama's remarks came at the end of a grueling nine-day trip that took him to Laos and China following US stops in Nevada, Hawaii and Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Obama said the United States and Southeast Asian nations gathered in Laos have advanced a vision of an open, competitive economic system in which all nations play by the same rules.

"When I think back to the time I spent here as a boy, I can't help but be struck by the extraordinary progress that's been made by the region in the decades since, even if there's still a lot of work to be done," Obama said.

Topping that list is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation free-trade deal Obama helped broker. The deal awaits ratification in the US Congress, where there is opposition from both parties. Obama said he planned to do everything possible to persuade Congress to approve it before the end of the year.

Obama rejected the notion that he had been slighted while in Asia or that leaders in the region were rejecting his leadership - a criticism leveled by Trump.

The start of Obama's trip was overshadowed by tense moments on the tarmac in Hangzhou when Chinese officials clashed with White House aides and appeared to have failed to secure a staircase for Obama's plane. The awkwardness continued days later when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called Obama a "son of a bitch" and warned Obama not to challenge him in their planned meeting in Laos. Obama called off the meeting.

But Obama ended up exchanging pleasantries with Duterte on the summit's sidelines. Obama said they shook hands but that it was a brief interaction, adding that he had told Duterte their aides should confer on how the two treaty allies can move forward.

"I don't take these comments personally, because it seems as if this is a phrase he's used repeatedly directed at the pope and others," Obama said of the slur.

As an example of progress on the trip, Obama pointed to discussions with Southeast Asian leaders about maritime disputes in the South China Sea and suggested progress had been made in clarifying the path ahead to lower tensions between China and the Philippines. In a joint statement issued by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, members were expected to issue a mild rebuke to China without referencing it by name.

"I realise this raises tensions," Obama said earlier as he met with ASEAN leaders, referring to a recent international arbitration ruling against China on the maritime dispute. "But I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions and promote diplomacy and regional stability."

On his final day in Asia, Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose help Obama is seeking to galvanise further action on climate change, especially among developing countries. The two grinned and shook hands but made no substantive comments as reporters were allowed in briefly for the start of their meeting.

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