by ROSALIND C. BARNETT and CARYL RIVERS
IMAGE/Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier/Flickr
The news media are at it again; suggesting that a new study proves the old gender stereotypes about women being good at intuition and social skills and men being better at understanding systems and action.
A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used high-tech imaging on the brains of 428 males and 521 females aged 8 to 22 and found neural pathway differences between men and women. (The study was published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.)
As the Guardian explained it, “Women’s brains are suited to social skills and memory, men’s to perception and coordination.”
Other coverage was similar. CBS news decreed: “For any woman who’s felt they’ve tried – and failed – to reason with a man or men who think they’re better at taking action, a new scientific study confirmed those suspicions.”
Anderson Cooper mused on CNN that maybe the Mars and Venus idea about the sexes was correct. The Philadelphia Inquirer observed, “There may be some truth to commonly held beliefs about what makes men and women tick.”
Turning scientific data into this kind of instant pop psychology ignores the complexity of brain science as history has shown.
Nineteenth century science decided that men’s larger brains made them intellectually superior. Because of their relatively smaller brains, women were said not to be capable of high-level rational thought. They certainly did not belong in universities, and for centuries were not admitted to them.
But we later learned that intelligence does not vary much between men and women. In this case, brain size means little.
What do the different neural connections between the sexes mean? Just the fact that they exist tells us precious little. Most neuroscientists today agree that a major mystery of the brain is the relationship between structure and function.
The study also tells us nothing about culture and socialization, which have a huge effect on behavior. In her 2010 book “Delusions of Gender,” neuroscientist Cordelia Fine of the University of Melbourne offered an exhaustive examination of more than 650 peer-reviewed studies. She concludes that social learning and cultural expectations account for most observed differences between the sexes.
Women’s E News for more