Articles in the Economist about Gender

[rhythmaning]

The Economist had a couple of articles on gender this week, which I thought might interest some of you.

The first is about differences between the sexes - try this link, but you probably need a subscription to see it. It looks specifically at how the brains of men and women work in different ways, as a result of male children recieving large does of testosterone. The stereotypes are generally true (according to the meta-stats) - men are better at spatial tasks, and more physically aggressive; women are better at social skills and "indirect agression" (which in the article sound to me like gossip). Interestingly, in 11-14 year olds, there is no difference in mathematical capability, but by 19-25, men are better at mathematical problem solving.

The interesting bit was in the way that men and women use their brains differently - quite radically so. Men use their "grey matter" more, women their white. Women are also using more of their brain more of the time - both temporal lobes, for instance, in situations when men only use one.

The other article was a leader - "How women won the sex war" (again, this link may not work! - more or less a rehashing of things they've said before, about how women are better placed to run corporations, due to their better adapted social skills.

Which means us blokes are all doomed.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Well that was more or less the Economist's conclusion. It concludes: "It's a girlie man's world, as Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't say."