Why Are There Differences in Gender Behavior?
Leadership for Intelligence Professionals
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Welcome |
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Leadership for Intelligence Professionals |
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Course Syllabus |
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Course Topics |
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Introduction to Leadership |
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Leadership Traits |
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The Leader's Character |
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Types of Leaders and Styles of Leadership |
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Leadership Competencies |
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Followership, Leadership and the Staff Officer |
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Leadership in Intelligence Coordination: Leading Teams |
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Leadership in Management |
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Supplemental Materials |
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Supplemental Materials |
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Self-Assessment |
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Self-Assessment Guidance |
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Worksheet |
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Personal Leadership Development Plan |
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Plan Guidance |
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Example |
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Two Student Examples |
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Student Example: Calendar Style |
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Personal Leadership Philosophy |
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Philosophy Guidance and Example |
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Student Examples |
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COMMUNICATIONS |
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Learn to Lead
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Why Are There Differences in Gender Behavior?
(October 2011)
Brain Differences
Neuro-psychiatrist and controversial author, Louann Brizendine says “…there are his and her brains….There is no unisex brain, and it follows these two brain models can produce quite different behaviors.”
“University of California-Irvine professor Judy Rosener says brain scans prove men and women think differently.”
Sandra Witelson, a neuro-scientist agrees with respect to the differences in male and female brains, saying:
There are clear differences in the brain between men and women, both in structure and chemistry, which includes hormones and neuro-transmitters and what’s connected to what.
Thus, some studies show that, as a result of brain “structure and wiring”
…men use only one side of the brain to process some problems while women employ both sides…
These differences…do not appear to have any influence on intelligence as measured by IQ tests. It does, however, seem that the sexes carry out these tests in different ways….
More generally, men seem to rely on their grey matter [the nerve cells] for their IQ, whereas women rely more on their white matter [the connections between nerve cells].
Lise Eliot, a neuroscientist at
…immersed herself in hundreds of scientific papers…[in her book Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps—And What We Can Do About It] she explains that assertions of innate sex differences in the brain are either “blatantly false”, “cherry-picked from single studies”, or “extrapolated from rodent research” without being confirmed in people. For instance, the idea that the band of fibers connecting the right and left brain is larger in women, supposedly supporting their “holistic” thinking is based on a 1982 study of only 14 brains. Fifty other studies, taken together, found no such sex difference—not in adults, not in newborns. Other baseless claims: that women are hard-wired to read faces and tone of voice, to defuse conflict, and to form friendships; and that girls’ brains are wired for “communication” and boys’ for aggression. Eliot’s inescapable conclusion: there is little solid evidence of sex differences in children’s brains.
Yet there are differences in adult’s brains….by 4 months of age, boys and girls differ in how much eye contact they make, and differences in sociability, emotional expressivity, and verbal ability—all of which depend on interactions with parents—grow through childhood….
…there are indeed structural and biochemical differences between male and female brains.
Hormones
According to Dr. Sam Wang, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at
Around the time of birth, sex hormones organize the brain by controlling development of regions that will eventually become important for sexual behavior….
…Is there really a difference in how male and female brains perform the same functions?
The answers may surprise you…when it comes to cognitive abilities, spatial memory and more.
Canadian psychologist Susan Pinker adds another factor to the reasons for differences in gender behavior. She finds:
Using the latest neurological and biological findings of brain imaging and sex-hormone studies…adds scientific ballast to the anecdotal truisms that women are more consensus-minded and team-oriented, and are better at reading human visual cues, interpreting feelings, and maintaining relationships and relationship networks than men.
All of the Above, Plus Social Context
Donald Pfaff a neurobiologist at
In some ways men and women are consistently different, but the significant differences in their brains only pertain to those primitive behaviors….When it comes to the higher functions—the skills that arguably make us human—the similarities outweigh the differences…Reported differences in empathy, leadership and verbal fluency have all been exaggerated, according to Mr. Pfaff. Where differences in these skills do exist, cause may lie in social context.
Lise Eliot, while concluding that there are differences in the brains of adult men and women, concludes that
…since boys and girls, and men and women, live very different lives and are treated differently by parents and then by society, it’s impossible to attribute those [brain] differences to innate biology rather than experience….discoveries in neuroplasticity have shown that brains of any age can change their structure and function in response to experience
Bottom Line?
Janet Hyde, a professor of psychology and women’s studies has “…collected all the important meta-analyses that have been conducted on differences between the sexes.” She has done a statistical analysis and has concluded “…on the whole men and women are much more alike than they are different.”
Sources
Elizabeth Weise “Men, Women: Maybe we are different” discussing the book The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine in USAToday August 22, 2006.
“Science and Technology” in the Economist, August 5, 2006.
Judy Roesner cited in “Women slowly gain on Corporate America” by Del Jones in USAToday January 2, 2009.
Sandra Witelson cited by Sharon Begley “Science” in Newsweek April 20, 2009
Lise Eliot cited by Sharon Begley “Science” in Newsweek, September 14, 2009.
Dr. Sam Wang lAssociate Professor of Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, lecture on "Different Sexes, Different Brain" in The Neuroscience of Everyday Life from the Teaching Company at www.Teach12.com.
Susan Pinker in her book Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap cited by Sandra Tsing Loh, in “Should Women Rule?” in The Atlantic November 2008.
The Economist of January 1, 2011 reviewing the book Man and Woman: An Inside Story by Donald Pfaff.
Lise Eliot cited by Sharon Begley.
Janet Hyde cited by cited by Sharon Begley “The Geography of Personality” in “On Science” in Newsweek, September 1, 2008.
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