I Can Do Anything You Can Do Better!

When comparing men and women biologically, there are some very obvious differences.  Have you ever wondered why women think they way they think?  I sure can't seem to understand them.  According to a recent study published by Tanya Lewis on Scientific America, the brains of men and women are wired differently.  This could explain this famous argument taken from the broadway production Annie Get Your Gun: 
ANNIE: Anything you can do I can do better 
... I can do anything better than you 
FRANK: No, you can't 
ANNIE: Yes, I can 
FRANK: No, you can't 
ANNIE: Yes, I can 
FRANK: No, you can't 
ANNIE: Yes, I can, yes, I can 

 According Lewis, the brains of male are more strongly connected to front to back where as the brains of women shows a strong connection left to right.   This means that men's brain are more more suited for motor skills and women's brain more suited for analytical thinking (Scientific America). Could this explain why males and females excel in certain areas of academia?   In her book Pink Brain, Blue Brain author as well as researcher Lise Eliot, Ph.D. states that there are subtle differences in what children excel in.  From what I believed, girls were suppose to better readers then boys, where as boys were better at math.  In recent years though, that though has significantly changed as I saw an even ratio of boys and girls becoming proficient in the same subjects. Lise does however clarify that this notion of being better at something is quite similar to the placebo effect in medicine.  Once people start to believe the idea, it slowly becomes true just like a "sugar pill curing headaches."  She goes on to saying this biased thought are carried out by teachers and parents as they try to push their children towards excellence.  
A specific study mentioned in the book claims that children, who were selected randomly and labeled as "showing unusual potential for intellectual growth", were in a way favored by teachers.  Teachers said those students truly showed interest in class and did exceptionally well compared to their peers. Its something to think about isn't it?  Couldn't it be the way our brains work?  Communication between hemispheres of the brain is clearly different in males and female.  The study Tanya Lewis published states that further studies still need to be done to conclude what this difference is brain wiring truly means.  Exploring further could potentially lead to more incite on disorders like autism which are more prevalent in males. 




Sources:

Eliot, Lise. (2009). Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps - and What We Can Do About It. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Lewis, Tanya. "How Men's Brains Are Wired Differently than Women's." Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.