You have two sons and a daughter. Do you think either girls or boys are...
Absolutely. Girls can do anything these days. Although they often restrict themselves to certain activities (because they see a computer programming camp as unfeminine), their parents are not usually...
View ArticleYour introduction mentions that these are “politically sensitive” issues....
Another journalist told me that people start arguing with her whenever she describes my book to them. I think we have become enamored of the Mars/Venus dichotomy. Somehow, it empowers women (about...
View ArticleParents like to believe we don’t reinforce sex stereotypes. Are we kidding...
To some degree, yes. The problem is that gender is impossible to ignore. While at times we bend over backward to counter the stereotypes, much of the time we default to interacting differently with...
View ArticleWhich genuine differences surprised you the most?
The writing gap is much larger than I appreciated—especially when you consider all the great male writers through history. Boys clearly need more attention in this area, and I’ve suggested several ways...
View ArticleWhat’s the biggest myth you hear about “how boys are”? And “how girls are”?
Well, the most dangerous is that boys lack empathy. The ability to read others’ emotions is crucial in any social species, and hardly something males could have made it through evolution without. The...
View ArticleDid your views about sex differences change while you were writing this book?
Absolutely. As a biologist, I started out very focused on figuring out precisely how boys’ and girls’ brains differ and the role of hormones in creating such differences. But the data just aren’t...
View ArticleWhat is the main thing you hope readers take away from your book?
That boy-girl differences are not as “hard-wired” as many parents today, imbued with the Mars/Venus philosophy, believe. Yes, there are innate differences, but we should be aware of how they become...
View ArticleWhy did you write this book?
Like many parents, I was fascinated by the differences between my daughter and sons. But as a neuroscientist, I was curious how these differences are reflected in their brains. And if there are...
View Article
