Gendered Brains

Femme Mentale

I've never had any argument with the recenty studies of biology, neurology, and psychology that suggest that women and men have differently wired brains. Perhaps I was predisposed to accept this idea because my father and I are very much alike in our intelligence, yet he prefers math and science and I prefer humanities. However, these conclusions of gender differences in the brain often incur criticisms, particularly from feminists, it would seem. There is the feeling that "separate by definition is not equal", as determined in "Brown v. Board of Education," is as applicable to our biology as to our school systems. Yet I would say the issue is not in saying that women's strengths lie in social skills and humanities, and thereby putting them in an inferior position to men, but rather that our society has learned to value male/masculine traits above female/feminine traits. We live in a world where power is more laudable than family and cooperation, and the sciences are more necessary than humanities. Well, those of you who read my second entry know how I feel about the latter hierarchy. And in fact, we would all do a lot a better with more focus on cooperation and social building and less on obtaining power and money while we're at it. If we valued art and literature more than we valued our video games and our cars, we would live in a world that was cleaner and more beautiful. If we made statues of our mothers and nurses instead of our war heroes, we would show that we reverence creation more than destruction. That there is more bravery in bearing and nurturing life than there is in ending it.

It is the female brain that gives birth to language, that key human trait that makes all other accomplishments possible. It is the female brain that continues to nurture humanity even when our jealousies and hatreds seek to destroy it. It is wonderful that we have programs that encourage young girls and women to go into the sciences, but we should also develop programs that empower young women to feel good about their works of art and about their close friendships. In fact, I think much of why women suffer today, being twice as likely as men to report symptoms of depression, is that we have been separated from our gendered community. Women are being trained by culture to compete with each other, rather than create reliable, close social networks. We are told to look for our soulmates in our male spouses, rather than our sisters (biological or otherwise). And even more importantly, we are taught that our reproductive value lies only in our wombs, and not in our abilities to teach younger generations--an ability that is only strengthened in the crone stages of our lives, where the biological reproductive capacity of the maiden and matron years wanes.

Perhaps these studies can give new hope to our daughters. We can teach them that they are the equals of men, not because they can compete with them in masculinity, but because they have their own strengths, just as men have their own weaknesses. This may finally be the key to ending the struggles of women trying to fit into a man's world and beginning to allow a woman's world to emerge.

On another note, Joan Gould's Spinning Straw Into Gold is an excellent women's studies book on fairy tales.