Delusions Of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences

A passionately argued and much-needed corrective to the belief that men's and women's brains are intrinsically different.

Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory. Yet popular books, magazines and even scientific articles defend inequalities by citing immutable biological differences between the male and female brain. Why are there so few women in science and engineering, so few men in the laundry room? Well, they say, it's our brains.

Drawing on the latest research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology, Delusions of Gender rebuts these claims, showing how old myths, dressed up in new scientific finery, help perpetuate the status quo.

Cordelia Fine reveals the mind's remarkable plasticity, shows the substantial influence of culture on identity, and, ultimately, exposes just how much of what we consider 'hardwired' is actually malleable. This startling, original and witty book shows the surprising extent to which boys and girls, men and women are made, not born. 'Consistently well-written and meticulously researched...Fine's touching vignettes...rewardingly illuminate the workings of the mind with the studied casualness of the gifted novelist.' Alain de Botton, Sunday Times on Fine's A Mind of Its Own

Cordelia Fine, daughter of the former Children's Laureate Anne Fine, is a Research Associate at Macquarie University, Australia, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She was called 'A science writer to watch' by Metro.