Gender and our brains : how new neuroscience explodes the myths of the male and female minds

Title:

Uniform Title:

Gendered brain

Author:

Rippon, Gina, author.

Personal Author:

Rippon, Gina, author.

ISBN:

9781524747022

Edition:

First American edition.

Physical Description:

xxii, 424 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

General Note:

"Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain as The Gendered Brain by The Bodley Head, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., London, in 2019." -- Title page verso.

Contents:

Chapter 1: Inside her pretty little head--the hunt begins -- Chapter 2: Her raging hormones -- Chapter 3: The rise of psychobabble -- Chapter 4: Brain myths, neurotrash and neurosexism -- Chapter 5: The twenty-first century brain -- Chapter 6: Your social brain -- Chapter 7: Baby matters--to begin at the beginning (or even a bit before) -- Chapter 8: Let's hear it for the babies -- Chapter 9: The gendered waters in which we swim--the pink and blue tsunami -- Chapter 10: Sex and science -- Chapter 11: Science and the brain -- Chapter 12: Good girls don't -- Chapter 13: Inside her pretty little head--a twenty-first century update -- Chapter 14: Mars, Venus or Earth? Have we been wrong about sex all along? -- Conclusion: Raising dauntless daughters (and sympathetic sons).

Abstract:

Rippon presents a breakthrough work in neuroscience and an incisive corrective to a long history of damaging pseudo-science, finally debunking the myth that there is a biological distinction between male and female brains.

Subject Term:

Cognitive neuroscience.

Gender identity -- Research.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Broad Rock	Book	612.8 R593	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	612.8 R593	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A breakthrough work in neuroscience--and an incisive corrective to a long history of damaging pseudoscience--that finally debunks the myth that there is a hardwired distinction between male and female brains

We live in a gendered world, where we are ceaselessly bombarded by messages about sex and gender. On a daily basis, we face deeply ingrained beliefs that sex determines our skills and preferences, from toys and colors to career choice and salaries. But what does this constant gendering mean for our thoughts, decisions and behavior? And what does it mean for our brains?

Drawing on her work as a professor of cognitive neuroimaging, Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that surround us from our earliest moments and shows how these messages mold our ideas of ourselved and even shape our brains. By exploring new, cutting-edge neuroscience, Rippon urges us to move beyond a binary view of the brain and to see instead this complex organ as highly individualized, profoundly adaptable and full of unbounded potential.

Rigorous, timely and liberating, Gender and Our Brains has huge implications for women and men, for parents and children, and for how we identify ourselves.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

An authoritative debunking of the notion of a gendered brain.In her debut book, Rippon (Cognitive Neuroimaging/Aston Univ., Birmingham) examines sex-difference research and finds a dismaying history of bad science and an abundance of design flaws, inadequate controls, and innumeracy. Neurosexism abounds, she asserts, citing studies and naming names with assurance and a touch of acerbity. She calls misconceptions about gender differences "whac-a-mole" myths: Mistaken assumptions, she writes, have "been variously whacked over the years but can still be found in self-help manuals, how-to guides and even in twenty-first-century arguments about the utility or futility of diversity agendas." Further, research findings are often misinterpreted by the press, creating in the public imagination an inaccurate picture of the so-called "male" or "female" brain. Rippon notes that the view of a gendered brain, which has a long history, is stubbornly persistent today. She cites both social psychologist Gustave Le Bon's 1895 declaration that women "represent the most inferior forms of human evolution" and Google engineer James Damore's 2017 blog about the biological causes for the absence of women in technology. Looking at numerous scientific studies, the author sees surprisingly little evidence for brain sex differences in newborns. Rather, she argues, the differences in behavior and interests between boys and girls, and men and women, can be explained by the impact of a gendered world on the human brain. As she notes, gender clues surround children from birth. Attitudes and unexamined assumptions can be toxic, and toys, sports, clothing, and colors have a powerful impact. Young children, writes Rippon, are social sponges, especially attuned to social rules, and their experiences in a pink-vs.-blue world can change the way their brains form. Ultimately, her message is that a gendered world will produce a gendered brain. The result, unfortunately, is that boys and girls are shaped with different expectations and are often driven down career different paths.Well-crafted and thoroughly documented, this is a must-read for parents, teachers, and anyone of either sex who cares for children. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.