Cordelia Fine's Book Reviewed by Ben Barres
Hi Friends of Women in Science,
Earlier (see here and here) we discussed the new book by Cordelia Fine (Delusions of Gender: How Our minds, Society and Neurosexism Create Difference. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010) on women in science forum, and I just heard that Ben Barres reviewed the book for PLOS Biology. I thought you would be interested to hear about some of the points he made in the review. As he says, based on his experiences as a neuroscientist and transgendered person, he is convinced that the differences between brains are not played out in terms of limiting the accomplishments of humans of any gender.
Barres notes with appreciation the way Fine pinpoints that "it is the idea itself that women are innately less capable that may be the primary cause of differences in accomplishment. This idea Fine appropriately dubs 'neurosexism.' " As we have discussed, women who are led to believe that they have less ability to do the assigned task will do it less well than women who are led to believe they have an equal shot at getting the right answers. We've discussed this under "stereotype threat".
Barres goes on to describe how Fine unpacks Baron-Cohen's experimental designs to call those results into question, and how small the differences are in these as well as other experiments claiming to show cognitive differences. Then, he continues noting that the supposed evolutionary psychology analyses, starting with Darwin and continuing, are deeply flawed and often based on circular reasoning, as Fine has pointed out.
Barres then tells us Fine's dicta to those who write books about gender and the brain: "Do not suggest that parents or teachers treat boys and girls differently because of differences observed in their brains. Exercise extreme caution when making the perilous leap from brain structure to psychological function. Most importantly, please don't make stuff up!" He urges us to follow Fine's advice and handle neuroscience findings with care: they can be used dangerously and harm other people.
What do you think?
Please take the poll and comment also.
Cordelia Fine also wrote a great blog post for PLOS last week dealing with critiques of her book and 'straw feminism' in general: http://blogs.plos.org/blog/2011/02/11/let%E2%80%99s-say-good-bye-to-the-straw-feminist/
I think the tone of this book is not quite as convincing as that of Jordan-Young's that you recommended earlier, Laura. It's just flippant enough to make you wonder if she's exaggerating her put-downs for the effect, although having such a prominent neuroscientist back it up does help its credibility with me.
Very thought-provoking comments in the Barres review. If only member of the press would read them and react accordingly!
I find Barres' thoughts very persuasive, and I already meant to buy the Fine book but now I'll do it immediately. Thanks, Laura.
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Laura Hoopes
Sonia Pressman Fuentes asked me to post this for her:
Not only do others undervalue women’s accomplishments and overvalue those of men but women and men do that themselves. Here’s an excerpt from my memoir on that very subject. This occurred after I joined the GTE Service Corporation in June 1973 in Stamford, CT:
“Shortly after I came aboard, I learned how men tend to
overvalue their abilities while women tend to undervalue
theirs. George [Shertzer, the General Counsel, my boss] asked me to accompany the office's antitrust specialist, Simon Colton [a fictitious name], to a meeting in New
York City to discuss an antitrust litigation matter facing
GTE and the company with whose representatives we
would meet. I was petrified; I knew absolutely nothing
about antitrust and very little about litigation. Simon, on
the other hand, was confident about his ability to handle
the situation.
“At the meeting, when the issue was raised, I was
reminded of a similar problem that had arisen in civil
rights cases and mentioned the technique that had been
used successfully in those cases. The others were
unfamiliar with it, but agreed that it should work in this
situation, too. My suggestion carried the day.”
The above is excerpted from the chapter called “The Corporate World” in the author’s memoir, Eat First—You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You, The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter.
Copyright 1999 by Sonia Pressman Fuentes.
