Delusions of Gender
It's been a while since I read a non-fiction book. I sort of go
through phases where I read them a little more often. But as this blog
clearly documents, it's been at least 2 and a half years (probably more)
since I last picked one up. It really just depends on something
actually catching my attention. And when I started to see references to
Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender it definitely caught my attention.
This book is essentially an extended literature review. Fine looks at countless studies the claim to get at the differences between men and women and makes quick work eviscerating all of the supposedly proven biological differences. She talks about how soon in life we are bombarded with gendered information, really from the moment we're born. Or even before. She points out the over-reliance on correlation used to imply causation For example, testosterone levels in the womb are thought to be responsible for fundamental differences in male and female brains. They are also thought to be responsible for relative differences in index and ring finger lengths. So some studies just use those relative lengths as a stand-in to assume higher levels of fetal testosterone.
The but that stuck out the most for me was the difference between the implicit and explicit brain. We spend our early life soaking up all this gender (and race and other categorical) information. Preschoolers are notoriously the biggest sticklers for gender performance, but as they grow older they learn that rules don't always apply. However, that preschool mind sticks with us for our entire life, hanging out in our subconscious and refusing to change in the face of evidence.
This strong implicit mind is responsible for an effect called stereotype saliency. Essentially, if you remind someone of a stereotype (say men are better at math) right before testing that stereotype, it's more likely to be proven true. Even something as simple as reporting your gender before taking a test can remind someone that women are supposed to be worse at math than men, or that men are supposedly worse at language comprehension. The stress of trying to disprove a given stereotype steals brain power and results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's a lot of information in this book, but it all points to the same place: gender differences are largely socially constructed. Most claims of biological bases for differences from the past (e.g., difference in brain size or physical size) have largely been disproved, and we have every reason to believe that the current similar claims will likewise be disproven.
This book is essentially an extended literature review. Fine looks at countless studies the claim to get at the differences between men and women and makes quick work eviscerating all of the supposedly proven biological differences. She talks about how soon in life we are bombarded with gendered information, really from the moment we're born. Or even before. She points out the over-reliance on correlation used to imply causation For example, testosterone levels in the womb are thought to be responsible for fundamental differences in male and female brains. They are also thought to be responsible for relative differences in index and ring finger lengths. So some studies just use those relative lengths as a stand-in to assume higher levels of fetal testosterone.
The but that stuck out the most for me was the difference between the implicit and explicit brain. We spend our early life soaking up all this gender (and race and other categorical) information. Preschoolers are notoriously the biggest sticklers for gender performance, but as they grow older they learn that rules don't always apply. However, that preschool mind sticks with us for our entire life, hanging out in our subconscious and refusing to change in the face of evidence.
This strong implicit mind is responsible for an effect called stereotype saliency. Essentially, if you remind someone of a stereotype (say men are better at math) right before testing that stereotype, it's more likely to be proven true. Even something as simple as reporting your gender before taking a test can remind someone that women are supposed to be worse at math than men, or that men are supposedly worse at language comprehension. The stress of trying to disprove a given stereotype steals brain power and results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's a lot of information in this book, but it all points to the same place: gender differences are largely socially constructed. Most claims of biological bases for differences from the past (e.g., difference in brain size or physical size) have largely been disproved, and we have every reason to believe that the current similar claims will likewise be disproven.
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