Have you heard “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?” It is so common phrase that you’ve heard of it. It is regarded as representing of differences between women and men. Most of us think there are innate differences between women and men, and it can’t be resolved. But there is a woman who said “There is little or no difference between men and women in brain structure, but These small innate differences are enlarged by our environment,” that teaches our boys not to play with dolls or not to choose pink t-shirts.
Dr. Lise Elliot
Dr. Eliot has published more than 50 works, including peer-reviewed journal articles, magazine pieces, and the book, What's Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life (Bantam, 2000). Honors include a Magna cum laudebachelor's degree from Harvard, a predoctoral NSF fellowship, a postdoctoral NIH fellowship, a Grass Fellowship in Neurophysiology, a Whiteley Scholarship from the University of Washington, and a Rosalind Franklin Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Eliot's newest book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It (2009).
Why Don’t Boys Play with Dolls?
When she set out to write her latest book, she initially thought it would be a simple explanation of how brains differ, and when these differences emerge how it explains robots and dolls, reading scores, math scores, and all these other scores we all are so obsessed with these days. But what she found was that there weren't a lot of differences between boys' and girls' brains, at least scientists haven't found a structure that is clearly different between a boy's brain and a girl's brain. Some scientists say that boys’ brains are about 9% larger than girls' brains from birth. One thing that tips her off is that when she was trying to understand this difference between brain sizes, it turned out all other organs are about 15% different, too. So, she doesn't put a whole lot of credence on this difference in brain size.
Boys vs. Girls
There is a belief out there that we have to treat boys and girls differently. And in fact we already do that plenty. One of the examples is when we treat our babies. In the first year, parents seem to talk equally to boys and girls. But beginning in the second year, when children themselves start talking, and girls talk about one month earlier than boys on average, there is definitely a sex difference in verbal development, but it's a lot smaller than most people believe. But this is not a difference that is strictly a function of prenatal testosterone. (Hormone found in men and male animals. It is thought to be responsible for the male sexual instinct and other male characteristics.) But basically, with good nurturing, the gap can be overcome. What I mean is that we have a stereotype about gender differences that women and men are originally different from biological point of view.
It is not a truth but complete fixed idea, so why do men differ from women?
She said our brain changes when we do things, and when we learn about something, and then the circuits get rewired. It means that environments shape our sex differences. When a baby comes out, parents do react differently to their babies according to their sex. This makes gender difference which boys feel they should act boldly and girls feel they should act neatly. That means gender differences start and grow with condition of our society regarding how to act according to their sex as a virtue.
Finally, she wants to talk about sex differences originated not by brain structure but our environmental customs. It said that both boys and girls like pretty decorated dolls, but boys are enforced to keep a distance from them, so that’s why there are Pink Brain and Blue Brain in our society.