Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference

by Cordelia Fine

Overview

“[Fine’s] sharp tongue is tempered with humor. . . . Read this book and see how complex and fascinating the whole issue is.”—The New York Times

It’s the twenty-first century, and although we tried to rear unisex children—boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks—we failed. Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it. And everywhere we hear about vitally important “hardwired” differences between male and female brains. The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo. Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework.

Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men’s and women’s brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men’s brains aren’t wired for empathy and women’s brains aren’t made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men’s and women’s behavior. Instead of a “male brain” and a “female brain,” Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender.

Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men’s and women’s brains are intrinsically different—a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393340242
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/08/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	374,772
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Cordelia Fine is a professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Melbourne. The author of highly praised works, including Testosterone Rex, which won the Royal Society science book prize, and Delusions of Gender, she lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Table of Contents

Introduction xv

Part I "Half-Changed World," Half-Changed Minds

1 We Think, Therefore You Are 3

Why You Should Cover Your Head with a Paper Bag if You Have a Secret You Don't Want Your Wife to Find Out 14

3 "Backwards and in High Heels" 27

4 I Don't Belong Here 40

5 The Glass Workplace 54

6 XX-clusion and xxx-clusion 67

7 Gender Equality Begins (or Ends) at Home 78

8 Gender Equality 2.0? 90

Part 2 Neurosexism

9 The "Fetal Fork" 99

10 In "the Darkness of the Womb" (and the First Few Hours in the Light) 107

11 The Brain of a Boy in the Body of a Girl ... or a Monkey? 118

12 Sex and Premature Speculation 131

13 What Does It All Mean, Anyway? 141

14 Brain Scams 155

15 The "Seductive Allure" of Neuroscience 168

16 Unraveling Hardwiring 176

Part 3 Recycling Gender

17 Preconceptions and Postconceptions 189

18 Parenting with a Half-Changed Mind 197

19 "Gender Detectives" 207

20 Gender Education 214

21 The Self-Socializing Child 226

Epilogue: And S-t-r-e-t-c-h! 233

Acknowledgments 241

Author's Note 243

Notes 245

Bibliography 289

Index 329

Editorial Reviews

"Forceful, funny. . . . These are the right questions to be asking."

Boston Globe

"In Delusions of Gender Cordelia Fine does a magnificent job debunking the so-called science, and especially the brain science, of gender. If you thought there were some inescapable facts about women’s minds—some hard wiring that explains poor science and maths performance, or the ability to remember to buy the milk and arrange the holidays—you can put these on the rubbish heap. Instead, Fine shows that there are almost no areas of performance that are not touched by cultural stereotypes. This scholarly book will make you itch to press the delete button on so much nonsense, while being pure fun to read."

Uta Frith FBA

…irreverent and important…Fine offers no original research on the brain or gender; instead, her mission is to demolish the sloppy science being used today to justify gender stereotypes—which she labels "neurosexism." She is no less merciless in attacking "brain scams," her derisive term for the many popular versions of the idea that sex hormones shape the brain, which then shapes behavior and intellectual ability, from mathematics to nurturance.
—The Washington Post

Wray Herbert

…Cordelia Fine…is an acerbic critic, mincing no words when it comes to those she disagrees with. But her sharp tongue is tempered with humor and linguistic playfulness, as the title itself suggests. Academics like Simon Baron-Cohen and Dr. Louann Brizendine will want to come to this volume well armed. So would Norman Geschwind if he were still alive. Popular authors like John Gray (Men are from Mars), Michael Gurian (What Could He Be Thinking?) and Dr. Leonard Sax (Why Gender Matters) may want to read something else.
—The New York Times

Katherine Bouton

"Cordelia Fine has a first-rate intellect and writing talent to burn. In her new book, Delusions of Gender, she takes aim at the idea that male brains and female brains are ‘wired differently,’ leading men and women to act in a manner consistent with decades-old gender stereotypes. Armed with penetrating insights, a rapier wit, and a slew of carefully researched facts, Fine lowers her visor, lifts her lance, and attacks this idea full-force. Whether her adversaries can rally their forces and mount a successful counter-attack remains to be seen. What’s certain at this point, however, is that in Delusions of Gender Cordelia Fine has struck a terrific first blow against what she calls ‘neurosexism.’"

William Ickes

"Cordelia Fine’s thorough (and funny!) Delusions of Gender punches a giant hole in the idea that women's brains are somehow ‘hardwired’ for nurturing and domesticity."

Jezebel.com - Anna North

"Delusions of Gender takes on that tricky question, Why exactly are men from Mars and women from Venus?, and eviscerates both the neuroscientists who claim to have found the answers and the popularizers who take their findings and run with them… [Fine] is an acerbic critic, mincing no words when it comes to those she disagrees with. But her sharp tongue is tempered with humor and linguistic playfulness… [R]ead this book and see how complex and fascinating the whole issue is."

The New York Times - Katherine Bouton

"Fine turns the popular science book formula on its head. Chapter-by-chapter, she introduces ideas about innate differences between the sexes… and then tartly smacks around studies supposedly supporting them."

USA Today - Dan Vergano