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Taking Sex Differences Seriously Paperback – May 1, 2005

by Steven E. Rhoads (Author)

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Most contemporary discussions of sex differences assume that they are determined by society rather than biology. It is society that teaches little girls to be feminine and little boys to be masculine--society that tells women to respond to babies and men to respond to sports. Reflecting the fashionable idea that male and female roles have been "socially constructed," most commentators speak of gender instead of sex. Because men and women are virtually interchangeable, so the argument goes, men should do an equal share of domestic and childrearing work so that women can compete equally outside the home There's only one problem with this beguiling vision of androgyny. Whatever we might like to believe, as Dr. Steven Rhoads shows, sex distinctions remain a deeply rooted part of human nature. In "Taking Sex Differences Seriously," Rhoads assembles a wealth of scientific evidence showing that these differences are "hardwired" into our biology. They range from the subtle (men get a chemical high from winning while women get one from nursing) to the profound (women with high testosterone levels are more promiscuous, more competitive, and more conflicted about having children than those with average levels.) Rhoads explores disparities in aggression and dominance, in sexuality and nurturing. He shows how denial of these differences has helped to create the sexual revolution, fatherless families, and policies such as Title IX, and the call for universal day care. But while insisting that we must take sex differences seriously, Rhoads also advocates discouraging some natural tendencies, like men's desire for irresponsible sex, and encouraging others, like women's greater interest and talent in caring for babies. In this provocative exploration of the masculine and feminine, Steven Rhoads dispels contemporary clichés and spotlights biological realities. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, "Taking Sex Differences Seriously" is a groundbreaking look at the way we are.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Professor Rhoads case for la difference is comprehensive and persuasive." -- Danielle Crittenden, author of What Our Mothers Didnt Tell us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman.

"Rhoads provides a responsible, clear, exhaustive, and convincing description of human sex differences...." -- Lionel Tiger, Rutgers University

"Scintillating and utterly persuasiveRhoads marshals massive amounts of evidence showing why they are wrong." -- Christina Hoff Sommers, American Enterprise Institute

"This book demonstrates in a host of ways how awareness of these differences will have important implications for social policy." -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and Our Posthuman Future

About the Author

Steven E Rhoads

Paperback: 362 pages
Publisher: Encounter Books (May 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 159403091X
ISBN-13: 978-1594030918
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 28 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1680 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gender Studies > General

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Jeanette James

The best one I've read concerning the differences and differences between ...

October 26, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Very well written. The best one I've read concerning the differences and differences between women

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Taking Sex Differences TOO Seriously

November 9, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

To be sure, this is a valuable and provocative book, and extremely readable. The argument, though, takes the biology-is-destiny school of thought a little too far and reduces to a homogenous pulp the variety within the broad schematic of male/female that Rhoads sketches. While it is certainly a mistake to deny all innate differences between the sexes (or as they are more popularly called "genders"), one can go equally astray by reifying them. In the universe according to Rhoads, men pretty much are all testosterone-driven, insensitive clods who need to be civilized by their "estrogen-bathed" mates, who in turn will find the meaning of life in changing diapers, especially if they breast-feed their babies and therefore find the smell of their poopoo particularly appealing (no kidding). To resist this division of labor is to court serious unhappiness and most probably divorce.

One of Rhoads' former students reminisces fondly about one of his lectures on sex difference: "you stated your view that if an alien came to our planet and asked you to show him what happiness looked like, you'd show him a recently engaged woman." Perhaps, having let loose with such overcharged rhetoric, Rhoads should question the reporting he gets back from his undergraduate students and graduate assistants. On that topic, a strange irony is that much of the research assistance and many of the psychological studies that form the basis of his work were done by women. If the world were re-made without day-care centers and if more women just stayed home and followed their biological imperative to procreate, I wonder what Rhoads thinks would happen to these bright and productive women students? The University of Virginia, where he teaches, was the last public university to go coed, back in, I believe, 1970; the program he espouses would lead us inevitably back to those days.

On the other hand, many of his more focused suggestions make a lot of sense: His chapter on Title IX, for example, should be read by the bureaucrats in Washington who make the ham-handed regulations that are slowly decimating men's sports, and his observation that men use parental leave differently (and need it less) than women is an important insight. I hope that, as Rhoads evolves as a scholar, he will find a way to combine these important policy observations with a more nuanced approach to sex difference.

The challenge for modern society is to adjust underlying sex differences to the realities of a complex information society to which women, like men, have a great deal to contribute. While social policy cannot pretend away the profound differences between the sexes, it also cannot ignore the changes in reproductive technology and the workplace that have leveled the field between the sexes. Our society needs a strong voice for common sense in this discussion. Rhoads, unfortunately, too often allows anecdotal evidence and his own prejudices to overwhelm his better judgment, and has produced, therefore, a good book but not a great one.

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Bernard Chapin

Brilliant.

June 22, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Luckily, on the occasions when we find ourselves under fire for our own personal choices or the choices of our ancestors, which is what political correctness demands from anyone born male, blasphemers like myself can find sanctuary in Steven E. Rhoads's delightful new book, Taking Sex Differences Seriously. Upon finishing Rhoads's work, many readers will discover that they have renewed respect for the nature of women, and, perhaps, unexpected esteem for the nature of men.

I should warn that Taking Sex Differences Seriously is not a chatty, self-help book. It is a highly erudite work in which the author examines study after study and author after author, yet, at the same time, it is very accessible (just as was the case with Why Men Don't Iron). It was written with the average person in mind even though it voluminously surveys contemporary scholarship. There is less focus here on statistics and experimental procedure than there is in works like The New Science of Intimate Relationships, The Mating Mind, or The Red Queen.

The study of sex difference can be quite precarious for the academic, and it is with some relief that I noted that Rhoads already has put in thirty years of service at the University of Virginia. For those without tenure, such a book could spell unemployment. The author cites the opinions of heavyweights like Gloria Steinem and Gloria Allred on the topic of sex research. They believe that making inquiries into the discrepancies between men and women is downright dangerous to all women and anti-American in spirit [!]. Yet, one could make a strong case that unearthing what others purposefully ignore is intrinsic to what it means to be an American.

The real question that most people have is not that differences are present but for what purpose do these variations exist? Central to Rhoads's work, and central to evolutionary psychology in general, is the fact that the biological drives of humans were formed long ago in a time known as the "environment of evolutionary adaptation." This period embodied "99 percent of hominid existence." Back then there were no hotels, no indoor plumbing, no antibiotics, no birth control pills or abortions, and certainly no cushy jobs which involved clacking away at keyboards. Survival was precarious and most of our current preferences evolved from our ancestors adapting to life in a brutal and unsavory setting.

Only in today's world have we reached the levels of luxury and comfort where we can mistakenly assert that men and women want identical outcomes from love, sex, and life. This false assumption is a cause for considerable unhappiness in our interpersonal relations.

Where Rhoads succeeds is through his presentation of all views and his relentless attempts to explain human behavior. He ignores nothing and shares with the reader many a citation which does not support his case. One would be wise to remember that the goal of evolutionary psychology is to illuminate the basis for human behavior and not to excuse or condone such behaviors. To describe is not to advocate. We embrace fantasy over fact if we deny that gender exerts an influence on the way we act, but, unfortunately, that is exactly what many universities around the country have done through their creation of women's studies programs and their never-ending fetish for describing the world as they want it to be rather than how it actually is.

26 people found this helpful

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Most recent customer reviews

DrWes

A want-to-give-5-star rating book

When I was in grad school in the 1970s, students never came out and said, I disagree. Your problem is that you solved the wrong problem with the wrong method and reached wrong...Read more

Published on October 28, 2013

Ari

Very Misleading

This book is very misleading and presents an avalanche of science and pseudoscience twisted to meet his fantasies.Read more

Published on February 13, 2013

J. Steven Svoboda

Worth Reading Though Much of Book is Not New and Some is Bizarre

University of Virginia public policy professor Steven E. Rhoads' latest book purports to be a meticulously researched and elegantly written, provocative and groundbreaking...Read more

Published on November 29, 2012

Learning New Ways

Never trust someone who claims to know what others think or feel without actually listening to them

I started to read this book because I try to keep an open mind on these things but as soon as I read this man's opinion on what women's "nature" is, what they want, and what they...Read more

Published on September 26, 2010

Amy

The sexual revolution hardly liberated women, but it did succeed in opening up a new can of worms

I read this book and my favorite part is where he speaks about the casual sex culture and how "sexual liberation" resulted in MORE sexual exploitation of women not less.Read more

Published on January 31, 2010

Dragonfly

A Must Read!!!!!!!

For a while I have felt depress and did not really know why. Now I know why! This book will gives you many pieces of the puzzle.Read more

Published on January 25, 2010

David C. Geary

Well researched pleasure to read

Taking Sex Differences Seriously is a pleasure to read. The book is well written, very well researched, and makes a strong contribution to disseminating knowledge of our...Read more

Published on September 4, 2008

Ross Feldberg

pathetic scholarship

As a working scientist (biochemist by training), I am definitely not as impressed with this piece of quasi-scholarship.Read more

Published on July 27, 2008

Alexander Kemestrios Ben

Take me to the magic of the 50s

Rhoads does an admirable job when synthesizing biological, psychological, and behavioral evidence of innate differences between the sexes, but he fails miserably when attempting...Read more

Published on February 27, 2008

Kathy Flaherty

Professor of politics pines for the past, no authority on sex differences

Steven Rhoads is a Professor in American Politics at the University of Virginia, and has written this book as a rhetoric on public policy: "I see my task as explaining why the sex...Read more

Published on November 27, 2007

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