Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are a lot of reasons i should like this book: I'm a math/science/tech-oriented woman, I have an undergraduate degree in psychology, I have an infant son, I've never been terribly girly, etc. Despite all of this, and a habit of reading academic and semi-academic texts, i struggled through this book.

The one thing that really sticks with me after finishing the book is a feeling that the author spent an awful lot more time pointing out studies that have been disproved or discredited, rather than making any positive arguments or citing any validated results. It becomes almost formulaic: she'll discuss a study in some length, including the methods, the results, and the implications, and then pontificate on how this explains observational or anecdotal information. Then she'll tell you that no further studies duplicated the results, so it's all just back to square one. I do appreciate that this is how science goes sometimes, but it's an awfully long book just to say that precious few studies have shown anything at all worth believing.

A lesser complaint is that the author seemed to have trouble deciding what kind of book she was writing. At times, it was a moderately dense scholarly work, with studies and statistics and name-dropping. Other times, it's pure anecdotal accounts, suggesting a vastly less academic target audience. There were also numerous references to her own children, done in such a way as to make it seem briefly like a memoir instead of research.

There are some things i did like about this book. First, the organization. Rather than just being a heap of studies and discussion thereof, it's parsed into age groups. While this does mean that she has to refer back to previous chapters when discussing studies of similar foci but in different age groups, there are demonstrated trends in the level of gender-exclusive behavior based on age, and it does make a great deal of sense to do it this way. Second, at the end of each chapter she includes a list of how to address the topics brought up thus far. For example, at the end of the girls-score-lower-than-boys-on-math-tests chapter, she has an extensive and well-explicated list of tasks and activities for parents to do with their daughters to help mediate the problem. The caveat here is that there's very little to indicate that any of her suggestions will work, but none of them could do much harm either, so if you're concerned about the topic of the chapter, it's probably worthwhile.

In all, i probably wouldn't recommend this book to most people. As much as the author does try to keep the technobabble in the background, there's sufficient academic taint to probably be off-putting to some. Likewise, for people simply curious about the gender gaps but without young children of their own, this book may be a little too practical and a little too casual. But if you, like i, have a strong interest in this subject, and a small child whom you're trying to nurture into a well-rounded adult, it's probably worth the time and effort.

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.

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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.

I am a geologist, but I found that I was familiar with most of the research presented in the book, because I have read about endocrine disrupters in several books in the past. I was, therefore, a little disappointed that very little research progress seems to have been made over the past 5 yrs since I looked into the subject. And while I appreciate the fact that she did go through the details of some of that previous research and explain why the results were good or bad, I felt it made the book a bit tedious at times. I understand that she was trying to be fair and balanced by presenting all of the research done and discussing all of it in detail. This is a scientist's way of handling a controversial issue.

However, I disagree with other reviewers that including these studies and discussion of them is pointless. I was recently diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and I had read several articles that linked it to Simon Baron-Cohen's extreme male brain hypothesis. I don't feel that I have an extremely male brain, just one that is organized a bit differently than other people, so I already had questions about this hypothesis and found her discussion of his research very useful in understanding that there is no official documentation of this hypothesis.

That said, I think that for the average person there is too much information on the science side and no enough on the tools you can implement side. If this book is really geared toward teachers and parents, then I think the science could have been presented in a more accessible way. I think it would have been more useful if she had discussed a few articles that lead to a specific point (e.g. we can teach girls spatial skills or give them more confidence about their math abilities) and then discuss in detail what parents and teachers can do to encourage development in relationship to that point. I think the problem is that the in-depth discussions are designed to have her work stand up to scientific scrutiny and the tips are designed for parents, so there is no central structure and point of view to the book.

Despite this criticism, I do feel that a lot of the information is useful for both parents and teachers, but it might be better to look at the tips for each age and then work your way back into the research part of the book if you want to know why that was her conclusion.

I was a little torn with how to rate this book. I give it just 4 stars out of 5 because I expected a book that was generally "for parents" and not for the medical/psychology area. On the back of the book it states "And she offers parents and teachers concrete ways to help. Presenting the latest science regarding development from birth to puberty, ..." I zeroed in on the first part - "parents". However, the latter part is more true, she focuses a lot on science. However, I love research and analyzing, so I feel this book was helpful.

Pros:

* Makes footnotes available on the page when needed - this is helpful to expand on the thought or background.

* This is research based and not just what she feels like or pulls out of a hat (although I do believe you can get enough research material to build a case any way you want)

* @ 83 pages of Notes and Bibliography at the end. I love this! If I want more information, I feel like I could dig further if I wanted to.

* Fairly easy to pick up and jump in at various points - you don't have to read cover to cover.

Cons:

* 18 pages of introduction - just get to the point

* seems to linger on topics and points to various research - just make the point

* this seems more technical than I thought it was going to be when I selected the book. I bet it could be even more technical if she wanted it to be - its at least readable for those of us not in Science/Medicine.

My recommendation: It depends. If you like details/analytics - go for it. If you are looking for an easy-to-read Parent book - this is not for you.

about me: female w/ business and IT master degrees and twin toddlers.

This is an age old question, nature versus nurture, etc. But there are so many influences on babies in utero such as hormones, nutrition and stress. Depending on the growth stage and the influences applied, we can get little synapse influencing building blocks in young brains. Only recently has it come to light that girls are scoring equally or better in the math facility tests that previously boys excelled in. For so long this was the excuse for keeping women out of the fields of medicine and engineering. Nw it seems that teachers' attitudes are what kept girls from mastering the intricasies of theorems and calculus. It also explains the superior results of girls only schools. As a young girl who excelled at mechanics and found myself crawling under the hood of a boyfriend's car to repair it when on a first date,I found later that it was almost a deal breaker. He was intriqued yet appalled by the role reversal. To me, it was a no brainer, I knew how to fix the transmission linkage and he didn't. If we wanted to move, I had to do it. But forty years ago that brought up a whole set of questions about possible homosexuality, or strange behavior because I was a closet grease monkey. This turned out well because we ended up marrying and I have a son who is an engineer with fabulous kitchen skills and is a wonderful father to my grandaughter who at less than two years loves airplanes,trucks and cars. Thanks to this book I know that she would love this no matter what. You will find your bliss. The most important thing we can do is encourage our children and give them educational opportunities, not "stuff". Otherwise all those hormones, excellent food choices and healthy exercise will have been in vain. Forty years have wrought many changes, and we know the post birth influence does not make our children gay or straight any more than we can make them a different race.This lovely book should be kept and reread with every new grandchild so one can have a qualified reference for their opinion!

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 to call. Hearing about her expertise, the local community college even asked her to teach a computer class for seniors. This woman, steered away from the benefit of a college education, made sure it was offered to and expected of her own daughters. From the time I could say "college", I knew I was going there.

Today the tables have turned 360°. It is our boys we are more worried about ... will they be kicked out of preschool or be unable to attend the college of their choice? Will they fail to launch and continue to live with us well into their adult lives? Girls are surging ahead, making boys appear to be failing. As it turns out, boys' reading, writing, and math scores are on the rise, their dropout rates are down, and more men are going to college, although their percentage of the total college population has declined. So while our concern for the success of our boys has risen, they actually are getting better educated but are left in the shadow of our girls' dramatic improvement.

Parents and educators can help change the challenges our children face because of their sex, and Dr. Eliot explains how step by step. From tips for promoting boys' language and literacy skills, to tips for encouraging our girls to stick with a more rigorous, quantitative curriculum, this book covers it all ... how we can help each brain inside each child become the best that it can be. Each new baby should be delivered with this book ... a manual to help your child achieve his/her full potential. And, of course, it should be required reading for every guidance counselor and teacher. We aren't just made with pink brains or blue brains ... our brains are molded by our life experiences.

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.

Before I started reading Pink Brain Blue Brain, I was skeptical of the premise of the book - that there are small differences in the two sexes at birth but the differences come from how we react to each after birth. The author, herself points out that she too is the mother of a girl and two boys and that she knows how different her little girl is from her two sons.

The book deals with differences in brains, hormones, and genetic make-up. It was all very fascinating. While boys and girls are born different, the differences become more pronounced throughout life.

Even though the book is based on research and medical views, it still easy to read and understand. It is very well written.

Whether you agree or not with the author, you will find the research and the biology behind it, fascinating. You draw your own conclusion, whether boys and girls are different or become that way overtime.

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.

I found this book to be fascinating, readable, and practical. I enjoyed it very much. I'm by no means a neuroscientist, but the book was eminently readable even for a layperson. The practical suggestions were very helpful to me as a parent of both a boy and a girl. I think it is very important to provide children with a wide variety of learning opportunities and to work to build up their weak areas. Parents too often pigeonhole their children by assuming that they will have certain interests and strengths.