Gender and our brains : how new neuroscience explodes the myths of the male and female minds /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Pantheon Books, 2019Edition: First United States editionDescription: pages cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781524747022
- 1524747025
- 612.8/233 23
- QP360.5 .R57 2019
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | 612.8233 RIPPON (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610022461532 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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.
Originally published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head, an imprint of Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London in 2019.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Neuroscientist Rippon painstakingly refutes in this exhaustive study long-held beliefs about gender's role in the development and functioning of the brain. Rippon demonstrates how researchers' expectations can alter a study's findings and how false statistics become lodged in the popular imagination and repeated as facts long after they are disproven, such as the popular belief that women "on average use 20,000 words a day and men use only 7,000." The most illuminating aspect of her account is an explanation of the "plastic" nature of the brain, particularly among infants and children. The brain's "trajectory may not be fixed but can be diverted by tiny differences in expectations and attitudes." Consequently, children as young as 21 months can recognize genders, and by age 5 are adhering rigidly to gender roles (centered around choice of toys, for example) based on the perceived expectations of the adults around them. This is a powerful and well-constructed argument for gender as a social construct-nurture rather than nature. Some of the harder science in the book is not layperson-friendly; Rippon's frequently accessible contradiction of sexist myths also contains massive amounts of neuroscience data. Nevertheless, those interested in gender-related brain differences (or lack thereof) will find this riveting. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.CHOICE Review
Rippon (Aston Univ., Birmingham) here thoroughly covers the impact of social factors on the human brain, making the case that biological sex differences are trivial compared to social context. The author provides extensive, interesting, up-to-date information on how social context shapes the brain as well as gender. The text purposefully (though in a rather disorganized sequence) lays out problems with existing research on sex and gender and calls for caution when carrying out and interpreting such research. This author, however, is unfortunately biased toward a presupposition that any positive claim about sex differences in the brain is sexist ("neurosexism"). The author is mistaken in arguing that because there are demonstrated effects of social experience, there can be no important innate sex difference, such that postnatal male and female brains develop differently due to biological difference. Some valid limitations of extrapolating from animal models are mentioned, but in largely dismissing them, the author undermines her own argument. To discuss "gender in the brain" without thoroughly discussing animal research is a serious limitation. Overall, this text does provide some important information on the role of social context but lacks a balanced perspective. Summing Up: Not recommended. --Robin Forbes-Lorman, Ripon collegeKirkus Book 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.Author notes provided by Syndetics
GINA RIPPON is Honorary Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at Aston Brain Centre at Aston University in Birmingham, England. Her research involves the use of state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to investigate developmental disorders such as autism. In 2015 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association for her contributions to the public communication of science. Rippon is part of the European Union Gender Equality Network, belongs to WISE and ScienceGrrl, and is a member of Robert Peston's Speakers for Schools program and the Inspiring the Future initiative. She lives in the United Kingdom.There are no comments on this title.