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Can Gender Science be Trusted?
We are glad to see that Dr. Eliot recognizes and is concerned about the differences she sees in academic performance between boys and girls. While we agree that nurture generally adds to the differences we see between boys and girls, we believe that current science is very clear in identifying brain-based (nature-based) differences between males and females. There are hundreds of credible studies, including more going on all the time, that are identifying these differences (to learn more about some of these, click www.michaelgurian.com, then click Research). As Kathy Stevens, executive director of the Gurian Institute recently noted, "While some of the biological differences between boys and girls may be subtle, the combination of nature-based differences and nurture can cause difficulties for both boys and girls if we ignore them."
Every year or two a book or article comes out that sets out to discredit brain differences and common sense, even though, once the whole book is read, the author does end up agreeing that there are brain differences between boys and girls, and women and men. It seems that most of the world already senses that boys and girls are inherently different (albeit on a vast spectrum, not stereotypes), but some people still fear this human experience, or aren't sure what to make of it.
Unfortunately, these books/articles select evidence and don’t take into account brain scans and other hard science; and they extrapolate the effect of socialization on formation of gender in the brain. For instance, PBBB provides a study of children who are encouraged to climb a hill a certain way and extrapolates that because there were differences in how parents talked to boys/girls, this could somehow account for the profound differences that show on PET and SPECT scans between girls and boys' brains.
These books/articles also generally study small samples (less than two hundred people); they don't recognize the work of scientists like Camilla Benbow, who has studied over a million children and found marked hard-wiring differences, or Daniel Amen, who has conducted over 50,000 SPECT (brain) scans. These books/articles also try to finesse the fact that our genomes are set up differently. In reality, as genome mapping is showing us, "maleness" and "femaleness" come from 1) X/Y chromosomes and 2) in utero estrogen/testosterone surges in the fetus. These are step one and two of our gender formation. Step 3 is nurture/socialization.
Ultimately, the Gurian Institute team believes that differentiating by gender can help improve academic performance, decrease disciplinary referrals and positively affect children’s attitudes about school and learning. Kelley King, GI’s Associate Director and an educator for more than twenty-five years, recently made this powerful comment: "I’ve been an educator long enough to know what goes on in classrooms and what teachers experience. And it all comes back to this – who is succeeding, who is failing and do we need to do something about it? Whether or not we argue over one brain science study, the work in schools still needs to be done and it hurts kids if we don't do it.” Kelley is referring to work over the last fifteen years, in schools, families, and corporations that have put gender science to work, and thus helped boys and girls close achievement gaps, families stay together, communities fight against gang violence, workplaces promote female talent to higher levels in corporate hierarchies. For more on this work, click www.gurianinstitute.com then click Success.
Brain science and common sense need to continue to trump nature/nurture debates if we are to grapple with the big problems we have in our schools, communities and workplaces. We thank Dr. Elliot and others writing books and articles like hers for keeping a strong light shining on what we need to do to help our children—both boys and girls—succeed in school and life. And we’re always open to discourse about our work and thoughts on this topic.
© 2009, The Gurian Institute
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