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Hormonopoly
| Article
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19670 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1991 |
2,299 Words |
| Author
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Beryl Lieff Benderly
Beryl Lieff Benderly is the author of Dancing Without Music:
Deafness in America, Thinking About Abortion, and The Myth of
Two Minds: What Gender Means and Doesn't Mean, which won
honorable mention in the 1988 National Psychology awards for
Excellence in the Media. |
BRAIN SEX
The Real Difference between Men and Women
Anne Moir and David Jessel
New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1991
228 pp., $17.95
La difference between the sexes is one of life's enduring mysteries. For the last generation or so, it has also been a burning social issue. Not since the early years of the twentieth century, when the first feminist revolt brought votes for women, has so much scholarly and popular attention been focused on what it means to be male and female. In these days of househusbands and military servicepersons, the social roles traditional in the West since the Industrial Revolution have begun to blur. But the deep dichotomy that separates the sexes' positions in society, as well as the assumptions that support it, still endure.
And so does the debate about the dichotomy's causes. Men and women, on average, act differently, perform different types of work, and exercise different amounts of power and authority. As with all other examples of social inequality, the discussion comes down to this: Do status and behavior reflect inborn or learned traits, physiology or culture?
In regard to racial inequality, we Americans have settled the question, in polite company at least, in favor of nurture. We agree that minority students, on average, perform academically less well than whites and minority adults achieve fewer positions of leadership in the general society because they face racial prejudice and limited opportunities, not because they're innately inferior or genetically "different." Today, almost no scholar seriously defends the view that black people, if given identical upbringings and opportunities as whites, could not on average perform as well.
As regards gender, though, we've come to no such consensus. In politics, at least, nurture holds the political high ground these days; women soldiers, for example, acquitted themselves well in Desert Storm. But nature has very staunch supporters, many citing evidence from genetics, physical anthropology, and, most recently, neuroscience, to argue that the social roles and typical behaviors that we associate with men and women arise inevitably from human physiology. Social structure, in this view, merely expresses the natural tendencies of our species.
Choosing up
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