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The Other Difference between Boys and Girls
by Richard M. Restak
1.
There is no denying it: Boys think differently from girls. Even though recent brain
research evidence is controversial, that conclusion seems inescapable. I know how
offensive that will sound to feminists and others committed to overcoming sexual
stereotypes. But social equality for men and women really depends on recognizing
these differences in brain behavior.
2.
At present, schooling and testing discriminate against both sexes, ignoring
differences that have been observed by parents and educators for years. Boys suffer
in elementary school classrooms, which are ideally suited to the way girls think. Girls
suffer later, when they must take scholarship tests that are geared for male
performance.
3.
Anyone who has spent time with children in a playground or school setting is aware
of differences in the way boys and girls respond to similar situations. For example, at
a birthday party for five-year-olds, it’s not usually the girls who pull hair, throw
punches, or smear each other with food.
4.
Typically, such differences are explained on a cultural basis. Boys are expected to be
more aggressive and play rough games, while girls are presumably encouraged to be
gentle and non-assertive. After years of exposure to such expectations, the theory
goes, men and women wind up with widely varying behavioral and intellectual
repertoires. As a corollary, many people believe that if child-rearing practices could
be equalized and sexual stereotypes eliminated, most of these differences would
eventually disappear. The true state of affairs is not that simple.
5.
Undoubtedly, many differences traditionally believed to exist between the sexes are
based on stereotypes. But evidence from recent brain research indicates that some
behavioral differences between men and women are based on differences in brain
functioning that are biologically inherent and unlikely to be changed by cultural
factors alone.
6.
One clue to brain differences between the sexes came from observations of infants.
One study found that from shortly after birth, females are more sensitive to certain
types of sounds, particularly to a mother’s voice. In a laboratory, if the sound of a
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mother’s voice is displaced to another part of the room, female babies react while
males seem oblivious to the displacement. Female babies are also more easily
startled by loud noises.
7.
Tests show girls have increased skin sensitivity, particularly in the fingertips, and are
more proficient at fine motor performance. Females are also generally more attentive
to social contexts: faces, speech patterns, subtle vocal cues. By five months, a
female can distinguish photographs of familiar people, a task rarely performed well
by boys of that age. At five to eight months, girls will babble to a mother’s face,
seemingly recognizing her as a person, while boys fail to distinguish between a face
and a dangling toy, babbling equally to both.
8.
Female infants speak sooner, have larger vocabularies, and rarely demonstrate
speech defects. Stuttering, for instance, occurs almost exclusively among boys. Girls
exceed boys in language abilities, and this early linguistic bias often prevails
throughout life. Girls read sooner, learn foreign languages more easily, and, as a
result, are more likely to enter occupations involving language mastery.
9.
Boys are clumsier, performing poorly at something like arranging a row of beads, but
excel at other activities calling on total body coordination. Their attentional
mechanisms are also different. A boy will react to an inanimate object as quickly as
he will to a person. A male baby will often ignore the mother and babble to a blinking
light, fixate on a geometric figure, and, at a later point, manipulate it and attempt to
take it apart.
10.
A study of preschool children by psychologist Diane McGuiness of Stanford
University found boys more curious, especially in regard to exploring their
environment. Her studies also confirmed that males are better at manipulating threedimensional space. When boys and girls are asked to mentally rotate or fold an
object, boys overwhelmingly outperform girls. “I folded it in my mind” is a typical male
response. Girls are likely to produce elaborate verbal descriptions which, because
they are less appropriate to the task, result in frequent errors.
11.
There is evidence that some of these differences in performance are differences in
brain organization between boys and girls. Overall, verbal and spatial abilities in boys
tend to be “packaged” into different hemispheres: the right hemisphere for non-verbal
tasks, the left for verbal tasks. But in girls non-verbal and verbal skills are likely to be
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found on both sides of the brain. The hemispheres of women’s brains may be less
specialized for these functions.
12.
These differences in brain organization and specialization are believed by some
scientists to provide a partial explanation of why members of one sex or the other are
under-represented in certain professions. Architects, for example, require a highly
developed spatial sense, a skill found more frequently among men. Thus, the
preponderance of male architects may
be partially caused by the more highly
developed spatial sense that characterizes the male brain.
13.
Psychological measurements of brain functioning between the sexes also show
unmistakable differences. In eleven subtests of the most widely used general
intelligence test, only two reveal similar mean scores for males and females. These
sex differences are so consistent that the standard battery of this intelligence test
now contains a masculinity-femininity index to offset sex-related proficiencies and
deficiencies.
14.
Most thought-provoking of all are findings by Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Nagy
Kacklin of Stanford University on personality traits and intellectual achievement. They
found that intellectual development in girls is fostered among individuals who are
assertive and active, and have a sense that they can control, by their own actions,
the events that affect their lives. These factors appear to be less important in the
intellectual development of boys.
15.
Recent studies even suggest that high levels of intellectual achievement are
associated with cross-sex typing: the ability to express traits and interests associated
with the opposite sex. Educational psychologist E.P. Torrance of the University of
Georgia suggests that sexual stereotypes are a block to creativity, since creativity
requires sensitivity – a female trait – as well as independence – a trait usually
associated with males. M.P. Honzik and J.W. McFarlane of the University of
California at Berkeley support Torrance’s speculation with a 20-year follow-up on
subjects who demonstrated significant IQ gains. Those with the greatest gains
displayed less dependence on traditional sex roles than those whose IQs remained
substantially the same.
16.
It’s important to remember that we’re not talking about one sex being generally
superior or inferior to another. In addition, the studies are statistical and don’t tell us a
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lot about individuals. The findings are controversial, but they can help us establish
true social equity.
17.
One way of doing this might be to change such practices as nationwide competitive
examinations. If boys, for instance, truly excel in right hemisphere tasks, scholastic
aptitude tests should be substantially redesigned to assure that both sexes have an
equal chance. Some of the tests now are weighted with items that virtually guarantee
superior male performance.
18.
Attitude changes are also needed in our approach to “hyperactive” or “learning
disabled” children. The evidence for sex differences here is staggering. More that 90
percent of hyperactives are males. This is not surprising since the male brain is
primarily visual, while classroom instruction demands attentive listening. The male
brain learns by manipulating its environment, yet the typical student is forced to sit
still for long hours in the classroom. There is little opportunity, other than during
recess, for gross motor movements or rapid muscular responses. In essence, the
classrooms in most of our nation's primary grades are geared to skills that come
naturally to girls but develop very slowly in boys. The result shouldn’t be surprising: a
“learning disabled” child who is also frequently “hyperactive.”
19.
We now have the opportunity, based on the emerging evidence of sex differences in
brain functioning, to restructure elementary grades so that boys find their initial
educational contacts less stressful. At more advanced levels of instruction, teaching
methods could incorporate verbal and linguistic approaches to physics, engineering,
and architecture (to mention only three fields where women are conspicuously underrepresented).
20.
The alternative is to do nothing about brain differences. There is something to be
said for this approach, too. In the recent past, enhanced social benefit has usually
resulted from stressing the similarities between people rather than their differences.
We ignore brain-sex differences, however, at the risk of confusing biology with
sociology, and wishful thinking with scientific fact.
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The Other Difference Between Boys and Girls