ArticlePDF Available

The myth of pink and blue brains

Authors:
Lise Eliot at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Lise Eliot
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation
Content uploaded by Lise Eliot
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Lise Eliot on Dec 12, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
Pa
g
e 1 of 3
N
ovember 2010- Print Pa
g
es
11/2/2010htt
p
://www.educationalleadershi
p
-di
g
ital.com/educationalleadershi
p
/201011/Print
_
submit....
Pa
g
e 2 of 3
N
ovember 2010- Print Pa
g
es
11/2/2010htt
p
://www.educationalleadershi
p
-di
g
ital.com/educationalleadershi
p
/201011/Print
_
submit....
Pa
g
e 1 of 3
N
ovember 2010- Print Pa
g
es
11/2/2010htt
p
://www.educationalleadershi
p
-di
g
ital.com/educationalleadershi
p
/201011/Print
_
submit....
Pa
g
e 2 of 3
N
ovember 2010- Print Pa
g
es
11/2/2010htt
p
://www.educationalleadershi
p
-di
g
ital.com/educationalleadershi
p
/201011/Print
_
submit....
Pa
g
e 1 of 2
N
ovember 2010- Print Pa
g
es
11/2/2010htt
p
://www.educationalleadershi
p
-di
g
ital.com/educationalleadershi
p
/201011/Print
_
submit....
2011
. _
ISTINGUISHED
CHIEV~ENT
WARD
For Excellence in Educational Publishing
Periodicals -
Learned
Article
The
Myth
of
Pink
and
Blue
Brains
Lise Eliot
Educational Leadership
ASCD
Neal Goff, President Charlene
F.
Ga
ynor, CEO
... They also allege that by separating the sexes, teachers are better able to meet the needs of each student because students are not distracted by the "opposite" sex and can pay closer attention to the lesson (Gurian, 2010;Sax, 2012;Sommers, 2013). Opponents of single-sex education argue that segregation leads to increased stereotyping and limited social skills (Eliot, 2010a(Eliot, , 2010bRivers & Barnett, 2011). Neuroscientist and opponent of single-sex education Lise Eliot (2010aEliot ( , 2010b) examined decades of research on neuroplasticity and found that infant brains are highly malleable and that parents and educators impose their own gender biases upon infants and young children, further affecting their future educational development. ...
... Opponents of single-sex education argue that segregation leads to increased stereotyping and limited social skills (Eliot, 2010a(Eliot, , 2010bRivers & Barnett, 2011). Neuroscientist and opponent of single-sex education Lise Eliot (2010aEliot ( , 2010b) examined decades of research on neuroplasticity and found that infant brains are highly malleable and that parents and educators impose their own gender biases upon infants and young children, further affecting their future educational development. ...
... Discouraged at the prospect of guiding a curriculum that she did not believe in, Dr. Chambers decided to do some research. She logged on to her computer and began reading peer-reviewed articles on neuroscience and sex differences (Cohen & Levit, 2013;Eliot, 2010aEliot, , 2010bElse-Quest, Hyde, & Linn, 2010). She soon came upon the following, Our actual ability differences are quite small. ...
Pink Is for Girls: Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice--A Case of Single-Sex Education
Article
  • Dec 2016
Leaders must know how to use evidence to inform district decisions, particularly as decisions related to learning become standard practice, and provide professional development that builds the organizational capacity needed to support continuous and sustainable district improvement. Collaboration and implementation of a shared vision and mission facilitates the change process. In this case, the curriculum director, Mr. Cooper has developed a plan for curriculum changes in which boys and girls would be separated by classroom, and participate in distinct curriculums based on the premise that innate differences between boys and girls should drive educational models and instructional strategies designed to address the needs and strengths of each sex. This case examines the importance of fostering collaboration, passion for achievement, commitment, and trust.
View
... Yao Eugéne [80] showed no significant difference in physical performance between boys and girls in children aged 7 to 11 years. However, a set of evidence reported that some differences were found between boys and girls in terms of physical activity [81] and cognitive skills [82]. Specifically, boys have higher physical activity' level (i.e., moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and counts per minute (CPM)) than girls. ...
Diurnal variation of psychomotor, cognitive and physical performances in schoolchildren: sex comparison
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
  • BMC Pediatr
Background The present study investigated the effect of time of day (08h00 vs. 11h00 vs. 14h00 vs. 17h00) and sex (girls vs. boys) on physical (i.e., five jump test (5JT), push-ball test and 5 m shuttle run test (5mSRT)), cognitive (i.e., attention) and mental (i.e., mental flexibility) performances. Methods Thirty schoolchildren, equally divided in girls (n = 15; age: 9.60 ± 0.51 years) and boys (n = 15; age: 9.40 ± 0.51 years) performed the digit cancellation test, the trail making test, the 5JT, the 2 kg push-ball test and the 5mSRT in a counterbalanced and cross over study design at 08h00, 11h00, 14h00 and 17h00 with 48 h of rest in between. Additionally, rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was determined after each repetition of the 5mSRT and the average of the score (i.e., sum of RPE scores divided by 6) was determined. Results Results showed that RPE at the end of the test was significantly higher at 11h00 compared to 08h00 (p = 0.02) and 14h00 (p = 0.001) and average RPE was higher at 11h00 compared to 08h00 (p = 0.001). Likewise, attention was significantly higher at 08h00 compared to 17h00 (p = 0.001) before and after the 5mSRT test only in girls. However, 5JT performance was significantly lower at 17h00, both in girls and boys, compared to at 08h00 (p = 0.02 and p = 0.001 respectively), 11h00 (p = 0.004 and p = 0.001 respectively) and 14h00 (p = 0.001 and p = 0.001 respectively). However, push-ball (p = 0.086) and 5mSRT performances [best distance (p = 0.173), total distance (p = 0.306), mean distance (p = 0.29), fatigue index (p = 0.06)] were time of day independent. Mental flexibility was significantly higher at 08h00, 11h00 and 14h00 compared to 17h00 (p = 0.001). Conclusion Mental flexibility, attention and jump performances were time of day dependent and push-ball test and 5mSRT performances did not change according to the time of day. Also, no clear sex effect was found on the diurnal variation of mental, cognitive and physical performances.
View
... Even though there are obvious biological differences between the male and female gender and their role in society (Barkul & Potur, 2010;Elliot, 2010), there seem to be no significant differences in the overall intelligence and cognitive abilities between the male and female groups as both are equally endowed in intellectual capacity (Anderson, 2004;Barkul and Potur 2010). Nonetheless, evidence in the literature suggests that girls and women have not been given equal opportunities like their male counterparts to excel (Niculae, 2012) and are under-represented in science and technology disciplines as professionals, academics, and students (Ardies et al., 2015;Barkul and Potur 2010;Bjørnstad, 2018;Enwerekowe & Mangden, 2019;Kaygan, 2016;Niculae, 2012). ...
Interaction patterns in architecture studios and lecture rooms in the Nigerian university context: implications for gender mainstreaming in architectural education
Article
Full-text available
Although gender mainstreaming in science, engineering, and technology education has continued to receive research attention, not much has been done in architecture. This study investigated the interaction patterns in architectural design studios and classrooms in the Nigerian university context to suggest how gender mainstreaming can be achieved in architecture education. Twelve Architecture Lecturers and 837 students drawn from three universities in Southern Nigeria were involved in this research. The data were collected via studio and classroom observations using a modified Flanders Interaction Analysis Categories and questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and Scheffe’s pairwise comparison. The results revealed that the competitive pre-dominated the cooperative interaction pattern but the female group was better in the cooperative pattern than the male group who did better with the competitive pattern. Gender was identified as the main factor influencing the predominant interaction pattern in architectural design studios and lecture rooms investigated. The study implies that for a successful gender mainstreaming in architectural education, effective integration of both the cooperative and competitive interaction patterns with the former dominating over the latter is required in architecture studios and lecture rooms in Nigeria and other countries with similar experiences.
View
... Such findings highlight the potential influence of social expectations on caregivers' perception of child behavior. For example, research on typical populations suggests that shyness is more tolerated in girls than in boys, while, conversely, aggression is socially more acceptable in boys than in girls (e.g., [12,13]). Hence, because passivity and compliance are traits typically attributed to and expected of girls, excessive shyness may be a greater cause for concern when displayed by a boy than by a girl; consequently, internalizing or withdrawal behaviors are more likely not to raise concern in a girl. ...
The role of gender in the perception of autism symptom severity and future behavioral development
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2019
Background: Increasing attention is being paid to the higher prevalence of boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to the implications of this ratio discrepancy on our understanding of autism in girls. One recent avenue of research has focused on caregiver’s concern, suggesting that autism might present differently in boys and girls. One unexplored factor related to concerns on child development is whether socio-cultural factors such as gender-related expectations influence the evaluation of symptom severity and predictions about future behavioral development. Methods:The latter concerns were the focus of the present study and were explored by investigating laypeople’s judgment of the severity of autism symptoms using an online parent role-playing paradigm, in which participants were asked to rate vignettes depicting the behaviors of a child in different everyday life scenarios. The child’s gender and the severity of ASD symptoms were manipulated to examine the effect of gender on the perception of symptom severity. Results: Results suggest that there are no gender differences in perceived symptom severity and associated degree of concern for 5-year-old boys and girls but that there is a gender difference in perceived future atypicality at 15 years old, with boys being rated as more likely to be perceived as atypical by their peers at that age than girls. Conclusions: Investigating parent’s cognition about their child’s future behavioral development can provide additional information regarding delayed diagnosis of autistic girls.
View
View
View
‘Gendering’ the text through implicit citations of gendered discourses: the construction of gender and teacher talk around children’s fiction
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2018
This study departs from the overriding focus on textbooks, which disregards how readers take them up. Informed by feminist post-structural theory, I analyse the construction of gender in children's fiction texts used in a New York City elementary school. First, I demonstrate that while the children's fiction texts were explicitly female dominated and/or progressive in their construction of gender, a feminist post-structural discourse reading illuminated that they in fact, implicitly cited discourses, which maintained gendered binary constructions and male dominance. Second, in going beyond the text, the study demonstrates that far from ignoring gender to focus on the 'official' curriculum as explicitly affirmed by the teachers, they had in fact implicitly and inadvertently cited, invoked and deployed discourses and discursive practices that inscribed gender differential and hierarchical relations in the use of the texts in the classroom. Third, I provide insights into teachers' lack of awareness regarding how gender is cited in their texts, and enacted in their teaching practices. I argue therefore that this 'talk around the text', which illuminated gendered discourses and practices, is, as well articulated by Jane Sunderland, 'an excellent epistemological site' for the deconstruction of traditionally gendered positions in the classroom.
View
View
View
Women and Leadership: A Neuro-Social Point of View
Chapter
  • Oct 2015
Women’s brains are different from men’s in very significant ways. Yet, on closer examination, there is nothing about those differences that suggests any reason why women should not be found at all levels of leadership in close to full proportion to men. Recent work in neuroscience demonstrates the variety, capacity and plasticity of the female brain. These characteristics make it fully equivalent to a male brain, and with the correct social environment, training and nurture, female brains ought to produce the same social performance outcomes. However, the human brain is wired in such a way that it resists significant personal change in the face of social obstacles. There are specific strategies women must adopt to get out of the middle management ghettos in which they are often stuck. If women understood their brains better, they could make them work for them to achieve more social and organizational power.
View
Toward discovery science of human brain function
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2010
  • P NATL ACAD SCI USA
Although it is being successfully implemented for exploration of the genome, discovery science has eluded the functional neuroimaging community. The core challenge remains the development of common paradigms for interrogating the myriad functional systems in the brain without the constraints of a priori hypotheses. Resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) constitutes a candidate approach capable of addressing this challenge. Imaging the brain during rest reveals large-amplitude spontaneous low-frequency (<0.1 Hz) fluctuations in the fMRI signal that are temporally correlated across functionally related areas. Referred to as functional connectivity, these correlations yield detailed maps of complex neural systems, collectively constituting an individual's "functional connectome." Reproducibility across datasets and individuals suggests the functional connectome has a common architecture, yet each individual's functional connectome exhibits unique features, with stable, meaningful interindividual differences in connectivity patterns and strengths. Comprehensive mapping of the functional connectome, and its subsequent exploitation to discern genetic influences and brain-behavior relationships, will require multicenter collaborative datasets. Here we initiate this endeavor by gathering R-fMRI data from 1,414 volunteers collected independently at 35 international centers. We demonstrate a universal architecture of positive and negative functional connections, as well as consistent loci of inter-individual variability. Age and sex emerged as significant determinants. These results demonstrate that independent R-fMRI datasets can be aggregated and shared. High-throughput R-fMRI can provide quantitative phenotypes for molecular genetic studies and biomarkers of developmental and pathological processes in the brain. To initiate discovery science of brain function, the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project dataset is freely accessible at www.nitrc.org/projects/fcon_1000/.
View
Cross-National Patterns of Gender Differences in Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2010
A gender gap in mathematics achievement persists in some nations but not in others. In light of the underrepresentation of women in careers in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering, increasing research attention is being devoted to understanding gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect. The gender stratification hypothesis maintains that such gender differences are closely related to cultural variations in opportunity structures for girls and women. We meta-analyzed 2 major international data sets, the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment, representing 493,495 students 14-16 years of age, to estimate the magnitude of gender differences in mathematics achievement, attitudes, and affect across 69 nations throughout the world. Consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis, all of the mean effect sizes in mathematics achievement were very small (d < 0.15); however, national effect sizes showed considerable variability (ds = -0.42 to 0.40). Despite gender similarities in achievement, boys reported more positive math attitudes and affect (ds = 0.10 to 0.33); national effect sizes ranged from d = -0.61 to 0.89. In contrast to those of previous tests of the gender stratification hypothesis, our results point to specific domains of gender equity responsible for gender gaps in math. Gender equity in school enrollment, women's share of research jobs, and women's parliamentary representation were the most powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math. Results are situated within the context of existing research demonstrating apparently paradoxical effects of societal gender equity and highlight the significance of increasing girls' and women's agency cross-nationally.
View
Evidence from intrinsic activity that asymmetry of the human brain is controlled by multiple factors
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2009
  • P NATL ACAD SCI USA
Cerebral lateralization is a fundamental property of the human brain and a marker of successful development. Here we provide evidence that multiple mechanisms control asymmetry for distinct brain systems. Using intrinsic activity to measure asymmetry in 300 adults, we mapped the most strongly lateralized brain regions. Both men and women showed strong asymmetries with a significant, but small, group difference. Factor analysis on the asymmetric regions revealed 4 separate factors that each accounted for significant variation across subjects. The factors were associated with brain systems involved in vision, internal thought (the default network), attention, and language. An independent sample of right- and left-handed individuals showed that hand dominance affects brain asymmetry but differentially across the 4 factors supporting their independence. These findings show the feasibility of measuring brain asymmetry using intrinsic activity fluctuations and suggest that multiple genetic or environmental mechanisms control cerebral lateralization.
View
Moderators of Gender Effects on Parents' Talk to Their Children: A Meta-Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 1998
Two sets of meta-analyses of studies examining gender effects on parents' observed language with their children were conducted. One looked at studies comparing mothers and fathers in amount of talking, supportive speech, negative speech, directive speech, informing speech, and questions and requests. The other looked at studies comparing mothers' interactions with daughters versus with sons in amount of talking, supportive speech, and directive speech. Across studies, mothers tended to talk more (d = .26), use more supportive (d = .23) and negative (d = .13) speech, and use less directive (d = .19) and informing (d = .15) speech than did fathers. Also, mothers tended to talk more (d = .29) and use more supportive speech (d = .22) with daughters than with sons. Medium or large effect sizes occurred in most analyses when particular moderator variables were taken into account. Effect sizes varied, depending on aspects of the interactive setting, the child's age, sampling and measurement, and publication characteristics. The results are interpreted in relation to a contextual-interactive model of gender typing.
View
Sex differences in the activity level of infants
Conference Paper
  • Mar 1999
A gender difference in motor activity level (AL) is well established for children, but questions about the existence and nature of an infant sex difference remain. To assess these questions, we applied meta-analytic procedures to summarize 46 infancy studies comprising 78 male-female motor activity comparisons. Our results showed that, as with children, male infants were more active than females. Objective measures of infant AL estimated the size of this difference to be 0.2 standard deviations, though subjective parent-report measures estimated the difference to be smaller. We argue that this early sex difference in activity level is biologically based. However, socialization processes, such as gender-differentiated expectations and experiences, in conjunction with further sex-differentiated biological developments, amplify this early difference to produce the larger gender differences in activity found during childhood. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
View
Of boys and girls: A meta-analysis
Article
  • Jan 1991
A meta-analysis of 172 studies attempted to resolve the conflict between previous narrative reviews on whether parents make systematic differences in their rearing of boys and girls. Most effect sizes were found to be nonsignificant and small. In North American studies, the only socialization area of 19 to display a significant effect for both parents is encouragement of sex-typed activities. In other Western countries, physical punishment is applied significantly more to boys. Fathers tend to differentiate more than mothers between boys and girls. Over all socialization areas, effect size is not related to sample size or year of publication. Effect size decreases with child's age and increases with higher qualify No grouping by any of these variables changes a nonsignificant effect to a significant effect. Because little differential socialization for social behavior or abilities can be found, other factors that, may explain the genesis of documented sex differences arc discussed.
View
Sex differences in 1‐, 3‐, and 5‐year‐olds' toy‐choice in a structured play‐session
Article
  • Mar 1999
  • SCAND J PSYCHOL
This cross-sectional study investigated toy-choice in 38 one-year-old, 33 three-year-old, and 35 five-year-old children, who could choose between 10 different toys (four feminine, four masculine, and two neutral) in a structured play-session. The children played alone for 7 minutes and together with their accompanying parent for another 7 minutes (play-status). The results showed that girls and boys chose different toys from as early as the age of one year (Mdn=12 months). These sex differences were found at all three ages. In contradiction to earlier studies, our results showed that feminine toys became less interesting for both girls and boys with increasing age. The present study showed no consistent effects of play-status. This study contributes to the knowledge of how early behavioral sex differences can be observed, how these differences develop, and it also raises questions concerning what sex differences stem from.
View
A Sex Difference in Mental Rotation in Young Infants
Article
  • Dec 2008
  • PSYCHOL SCI
Three- to 4-month-old female and male human infants were administered a two-dimensional mental-rotation task similar to those given to older children and adults. Infants were familiarized with the number 1 (or its mirror image) in seven different rotations between 0 degrees and 360 degrees, and then preference-tested with a novel rotation of the familiar stimulus paired with its mirror image. Male infants displayed a novelty preference for the mirror-image stimulus over the novel rotation of the familiar stimulus, whereas females divided attention between the two test stimuli. The results point toward an early emergence of a sex difference in mental rotation.
View
Sex Differences in the Human Corpus Callosum: Myth or Reality?
Article
  • Oct 1997
  • NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R
It has been claimed that the human corpus callosum shows sex differences, and in particular that the splenium (the posterior portion) is larger in women than in men. Data collected before 1910 from cadavers indicate that, on average, males have larger brains than females and that the average size of their corpus callosum is larger. A meta-analysis of 49 studies published since 1980 reveals no significant sex difference in the size or shape of the splenium of the corpus callosum, whether or not an appropriate adjustment is made for brain size using analysis of covariance or linear regression. It is argued that a simple ratio of corpus callosum size to whole brain size is not an appropriate way to analyse the data and can create a false impression of a sex difference in the corpus callosum. The recent studies, most of which used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), confirm the earlier findings of larger average brain size and overall corpus callosum size for males. The widespread belief that women have a larger splenium than men and consequently think differently is untenable. Causes of and means to avoid such a false impression in future research are discussed.
View
Mothers' Responses to Sons and Daughters Engaging in Injury-Risk Behaviors on a Playground: Implications for Sex Differences in Injury Rates
Article
  • Jul 2000
Videotapes of children engaging in injury-risk activities on a playground were shown to mothers, who were asked to intervene by stopping the tape and saying whatever they would to their child in the situation shown. Results revealed that mothers of daughters were more likely to judge behaviors as posing some degree of injury risk, and they intervened more frequently and quickly than mothers of sons. Mothers' speed to intervene positively correlated with both children's injury history and their risk-taking tendencies, indicating that mothers of children who were previously injured and who often engaged in injury-risk behaviors had a higher degree of tolerance for children's risk taking than mothers of children who experienced fewer injuries and less frequently engaged in injury-risk behaviors. Mothers' verbalizations to children's risk taking revealed that daughters received more cautions and statements communicating vulnerability for injury, whereas sons received more statements encouraging risk-taking behavior.
View