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"Delusions of Gender takes on that tricky question, Why exactly are men from Mars and women from Venus?, and eviscerates both the neuroscientists who claim to have found the answers and the popularizers who take their findings and run with them. ... What all this adds up to, she says, is neurosexism. ... Dr. Fine's research is well documented, with 82 pages of footnotes. ... [R]ead this book and see how complex and fascinating the whole issue is."
- New York Times |
It's the twenty-first century, and although we tried to rear unisex children--boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks--we failed. Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it. And everywhere we hear about vitally important "hardwired" differences between male and female brains. The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo. Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework.
Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men's and women's brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men's brains aren't wired for empathy and women's brains aren't made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men's and women's behavior. Instead of a "male brain" and a "female brain," Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender.
Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men's and women's brains are intrinsically different--a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.
Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men's and women's brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men's brains aren't wired for empathy and women's brains aren't made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men's and women's behavior. Instead of a "male brain" and a "female brain," Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender.
Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men's and women's brains are intrinsically different--a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.
Awards & Recognition
Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-Fiction 2011
Shortlisted for the Best Book of Ideas Prize 2011
Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010
Shortlisted for the Warwick Prize 2013.
A Guardian Book of the Year
A London Evening Standard Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Listed in "10 books by women that will change your life" (Sunday Times), "22 books women think men should read" (Huffington Post), "Top 10 books on women in the past 30 years" (The Australian) and "40 new feminist classics" (Literary Classics).
Shortlisted for the Best Book of Ideas Prize 2011
Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010
Shortlisted for the Warwick Prize 2013.
A Guardian Book of the Year
A London Evening Standard Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Listed in "10 books by women that will change your life" (Sunday Times), "22 books women think men should read" (Huffington Post), "Top 10 books on women in the past 30 years" (The Australian) and "40 new feminist classics" (Literary Classics).