We're All From Venus And Neurosexism Is So Yesterday

It was a Sydney Morning Herald  front page subheading that grabbed me whilst standing in a cue yesterday. 

As brain research sheds more light on how we operate, it becomes clear that there's actually very little difference in the "hard-wiring" of male and female brains.

And to say otherwise is to be a boring and walking cliche and you will be vastly and embarrassingly out of date within 18 months.  

However.

A book about to be published by a researcher from Melbourne Uni states there are no major neurological differences between men and women. Cordelia Fine is the author of Delusions of Gender and she challenges any "hard-wiring" at all. The wiring is actually soft, not hard, she says.

Yes there are basic behavioural differences between girls and boys. They are exaggerated not because of 'hard-wiring' but because of a culture that has to delegate gender roles. Such is the view from Chicago Associate professor Lise Eliot who has written Pink Brain Blue Brain.

In short, the case against sexism and racism is always the same. As a race, humans - all of us - are more alike than we are different.

For such a viewpoint to hold any credit, science has to keep proving it.  And science is.

I like to think this science will have wonderful and wide reaching implications for the teaching and educating of children. Our brains are "flexible ...changeable" says Fine. Boys can be good at verbal tasks, girls can read maps. It goes on and on, just how much alike we can be, if only we were taught to be human and not put into boxes of boys or girls.

But it's interesting isn't it? How insecure we are - to constantly need the nod of 'hard science' to finally and conclusively prove the bleeding obvious.

Cordelia Fine pictured.

 

 

Comments

[al]

yes, sometimes hard science can suck, women can (and often do) rock and men... well sometimes they still seem to turn me into a raving looney... does that prove that hysteria is still the domain of the femme de la kitchen sink ? Methinks I shall have to create an experiment.....

[phd in yogurtry]

I tend to believe its a bit of both. Some wiring, some learned. As a mom of twins, I see wiring. I don't want to hear about raising them with subtle differences. I was too tired and harried to distinguish. Their personality traits were emerging and apparent then, as now.

Not that I think there is any wiring exclusive to men. Or exclusive to women. But there are trends. I read this figure in a book on gender differences, roughly 85% of males exhibit stereotypically male traits and vice versa.

I read that years ago. And as you say, I am probably embarrassingly out of date.

[Alison]

Yes phd, it's not a new argument this one. It's the nature vs nurture debate in an updated version.

No, you're not out of date at all - I would argue you're an expert in the matter!

[Jonathan O.]

I personally hate the way people actually make up some of these differences. We are all human after all and you can never generalize anything ! I, for an example, never judge a woman because she's a woman. I judge the person she is. I've met women that are not that smart but I've also met women so strong and intelligent. The genes differ from men to women as much as they differ from men to men or women to women.

[Janie]

Finally, a more rational opinion regarding ...well opinions ! Well said there jonathan...you have a thumbs up from me :)

[Barelifts]

Yes phd, it's not a new argument this one. It's the nature vs nurture debate in an updated version.
Thanks for sharing with us.