Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps -- And What We Can Do about It

by Lise Eliot

Book Overview

An important scientific exploration of the differences between boys and girls that breaks down damaging gender stereotypes and offers practical guidance for parents and educators.

In the past decade, we've heard a lot about the innate differences between males and females. As a result, we've come to accept that boys can't focus in a classroom and girls are obsessed with relationships. That's just the way they're built.

In...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0547394594
• ISBN13: 9780547394596
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A lively, popular read

Pink Brain Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps - and What We Can Do About It offers insights into gender differences, arguing that the brains of boys and girls are shaped by how they spend their time. Her insights on brain development differences between boys and girls reveals some reliable differences between men and women's brains - but nearly none between the brains of boys and girls. General-interest and health libraries will find this a lively, popular read.

interesting, fact-based information on male and female brains

Pink Brain, Blue Brain is fascinating. Lise Eliot uses her knowledge and expertise as a neuroscientist to explain to us that we might be relying too much on pseudo-science in the media to inform us of how things really are in regards to boys and girls. We are bombarded not only with pseudo-science, but with actual science that is not explained fully, such as studies on rats, studies on adult brains (who's to say that adult brains developed the way they were based soley on biology?), and studies on children who have been influenced already. Eliot emphasizes we can't make cut-and-dry declarations about human male and female brains unless we go into fetal studies or newborn studies, which are few and far between. Besides the interesting discussion of science, at the end of each chapter Eliot lists a few things parents and teachers can do to make sure children can live up to their capabilities. The chapters are divided easily into age groups. This book is very helpful to anyone interested in the differences between males and females and wanting a little more scientific oomph than screaming headlines. *************************** I have to add to this review. This book is not a difficult read if taken in little steps as I did. I wouldn't try to sit down and read it through; it's about neuroscience and includes lots of information and data. The author's point is that we shouldn't believe everything we're told about male and female brains, not without understanding how that data was acquired.

Excellent book!

We've all seen the stupid headlines - Adult men and women have different brain structures! How we think is built into our brains from birth! It's enough to make a mom throw up her hands, admit defeat, and go buy yet another Barbie for her daughter since the little girl is obviously preprogrammed to hate physical toys and love dress-up dolls. It's nice to find a researcher as frustrated by junk reporting as I am. This book does a great job of explaining how and when the differeneces in our brains are created. Yes, some differences are there when we are born. Girls are more likely to play with dolls. Boys are more likely to love balls. But as every parent knows, a child's likes and dislikes rarely stays true to stereotype. In addition, a child's brain grows by leaps and bounds in the first years of life. And how it grows is firmly directed by what it is exposed to. Expose a child to a wide varety of sights, sounds, and experiences and his brain will develop much more than a child raised in a quiet, sterile, boring world. Give a child only stereotypical toys and she (or he) will play only with those toys. Encourage your child to play outside her "comfort zone" from time to time and she will learn a lot more than she would spending the same amount of time playing in the same well-worn grove that she always plays in. A few minutes here and there can make a huge difference in such rapidly developing brains.

A Must Read Book before you have a boy or a girl

People are always interested in the differences between males and females. And, unfortunately, stereotypes sell better. "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus", which Eliot referred in this book, is a very good example. I've read that book, too. While it was highly entertaining, I was not convinced. Because males in Japan behave very differently from American counterparts. I thought cultural difference was greater than gender difference. Lise Eliot's thoughtful approach "Pink Brain Blue Brain" is closer to what I have always believed as a female growing up in Japan ( male dominant society), and a mother who raises a daughter in USA. Although I didn't have any scientific evidence to back up my belief, I didn't encourage my daughter to play with dolls. My daughter chose to play with cars, trucks, and dinosaurs when she was little and played mainly with boys because her energy level was a lot higher than other girls. When my daughter was 4, she told me " I don't want to play with Becca because she always want to do dress-ups. I hate dress-ups. It's sooo boring!" She joined a swim club when she was 6 and physically stronger than most of the boys although she was the smallest in the class. I also have never believed "girls will be less interested in science", and at high school, my daughter is known to be very good at math and science and want to become a scientist. No, she is not CAH (congenital adrenal hyperplasia) girl. Although she loved cars, trucks, and dinosaurs, she didn't like rough-and-tumble play and declared, " I am not going to do play-date with boys anymore!" when she started Kindergarten because boys became too rough to play with. And like many teenage girls, she started to pay more attentions to cute boys and dresses even though I never encourage them. Yes, there are differences between boys and girls, biologically. As Eliot wrote, "Gender does matter, in education and everything else we do as humans.", but their differences are "hardly worlds apart". How we treat boys and girls influences their future more than biological difference. The important message is, as Eliot states, "We need to assiduously avoid prejudging any boy or girl" "Pink Brain Blue Brain" is very thoughtful, and very interesting. I love the scientific explanations. My daughter who is interested in becoming neuroscientist wants to read this book, too. After all, I may have influenced my daughter because I love reading neuroscience books. Eliot's "What's Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life" is also a very good book.

What color is your brain?

On the first day of school in 1967 I walked into my chemistry class excited about the challenge of what I knew would be a difficult course. Once we had settled in our seats, our teacher introduced himself. Looking around the class, he said "I don't know what all you girls are doing in here." His wife was the home-ec teacher at our school, and he made it quite apparent that he thought all of us "girls" should be in her class, not his. As I expected, it was a difficult class. Without the mentoring of a teacher who believed in me, I squeaked by with a B- average in the course, my lowest grade in high school. It was obvious to me that I should not select a career which required an aptitude for science. I began college as an English major, preparing to teach my favorite subject. Now fast forward 42 years. Today no chemistry teacher would dare to make that kind of boldly sexist statement. However, many well-educated people still believe that boys have a natural edge in math and science, and treat their female daughters or students accordingly. While Dr. Eliot tells us there are subtle differences in the brains of girls and boys, these differences are magnified through "plasticity", a term used to describe the fact that the brain changes in response to its own experience. So parents who buy dolls for little girls and Lego's for little boys are offering experiences which will later help to mold each child's brain. Perhaps it is time for your children to select a college and career. Just as I did so many years ago, most girls gravitate toward what comes easiest to them and away from technical and quantitative fields. Dr. Eliot tell us that "While reading and writing are important, math has a special place - what some call the critical filter - that determines who can advance to higher-paying and more prestigious jobs." It is fact that math and science are where the money is. Many more women are capable of going into fields requiring these skills than actually do. And we wonder why women still earn less than eighty cents for every dollar earned by men. All of this is beginning to change as we expect our girls to be more like boys. Girls have soared in response to sports, math, science, and leadership training. The proportion of women majoring in accounting and veterinary medicine has grown from a mere 8 or 9 percent in 1970 to 61 percent in accounting and 74 percent in veterinary medicine. In sharp contrast, women comprise only 20 percent of engineering students and a slightly higher percentage of computer science graduates. Interestingly, 100 years ago only 20% of college students were women. Take my mom, for example. She is 79 years old and was the salutatorian of her high school class. While she loved learning, there was no money in the family budget for a daughter to go to college. Today mom is the computer "guru" of her "assisted living" community. If anyone, male or female, is having computer problems they know who t