Delusions of Gender

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine     338 pages

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 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.

This was a very interesting book to read - I would have rated it higher if I felt the writing was more accessible to the lay-person. It's a very science-heavy read, so if you like being given lots of facts and info from studies, you probably won't mind the writing-style. For me, it was a little too boring - even though I find the subject matter in itself fascinating.

Still, that aside, I am glad I read this book. Fine brings up some important facts - like how even if people try to raise a child in a genderless way, they are still subconsciously subscribing to gender norms and children are living in a world filled with gender norms, making it an almost impossible task. Or how many gender-studies scientists make big assumptions about gender based on very limited data or make correlations that aren't really supported by the trials and studies they make, . She also brings up how everyone, no matter how old they are, can subconsciously be swayed by gender-specific information, even when people are not prone to thinking in sexist ways. Sexism is so entrenched in our society that even for those who, as Fine calls it, have "have changed minds," (meaning they reject sexist ideas and try to combat sexism), sexism is still occurring in subtle ways that would be difficult to spot or prevent. 

Basically, it's a long way to go before society will be capable of overthrowing gender norms, but it is doable and there is nothing wrong with trying to fix sexism where you see it or to try to raise your children without gender norms. It's a good read and I'd highly recommend it.