Maths and the Logical Brain of Men…

 Else-Quest, N., Hyde, J., & Linn, M. (2010). Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136 (1), 103-127 DOI: 10.1037/a0018053

You’ve heard of the ‘extreme’ male brain, which proclaims that men are stuck on or falling off the edge because that is simply the way our male brains are ‘wired’? I am not an adherent. Such biological essentialism or determinism, lays down heavy bricks that can never be shifted. In this awful prism, men are trapped like blowflies in a fridge, whirling round and round till they expend all their energy and expire. Thankfully, many things that we once thought to be true lose their lustre under the harsh light of scientific evidence. The myth that males are better at maths than females, for one, has been soundly debunked by solid proof (see article) that there really are no gender-based differences in math capability. Yes, women can be logical, men emotional and vice versa. Our brains are not wired to be anything other than what we choose to be or not to be. That some commentators in the men’s movement would attribute this gender equality to the ‘crisis of masculinity’ shows that they can only ever think of women as being in a perpetually subordinate position to men…