Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps — and What We Can Do About It” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps — and What We Can Do About It

Lise Eliot

3.76 · Rating details · 868 ratings · 142 reviews

In the past decade, we've heard a lot about the innate differences between males and females. As a result, we've come to accept that boys can't focus in a classroom and girls are obsessed with relationships. That's just the way they're built. In Pink Brain Blue Brain, neuroscientist Lise Eliot turns that thinking on its head. Based on years of exhaustive research and her o ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 432 pages

Published September 14th 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published January 1st 2009)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Pink Brain, Blue Brain, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Pink Brain, Blue Brain

Lists with This Book

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

My Life in Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald

pretty in pink!

442 books — 124 voters

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Women & Gender Studies

1,421 books — 541 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.76 ·

Rating details

· 868 ratings · 142 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps — and What We Can Do About It

Oct 16, 2009 Jacinda rated it did not like it

Shelves: nonfiction, gender

I was deeply disappointed by this book. Repeatedly, the author tells us that some difference between girls and boys is insignificant compared to variation within each group -- then goes on to discuss at length how parents and teachers should accommodate these important differences. WTF? If the differences are that small, then parents of boys do not, in fact, need to talk to them more in order to make up for their naturally poorer language skills (for example). I fail to see how encouraging this ...more

flag 31 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2012 Alison rated it it was amazing

Shelves: evolution, science, neuroscience, gender, non-fiction

This was one of several books I picked up after I decided that I was just getting too uncomfortable with the discussion about boys and girls innate differences. Discovering feminism in the 80s, for me feminism was in large part defined by the idea that girls could do everything that boys could. Over the last 30 years, it felt insidiously as if the nature vs nuture debate pendulum had swung back in the opposite direction.

Of the books I picked up, this was easily, easily my favourite. I wish I cou ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Dec 28, 2011 Amanda rated it liked it

Shelves: feminism

I have mixed feelings about this book:

PRO:
*The author knows her science and presents facts in a very levelheaded way. Sources are fastidiously documented in a nearly 100 page appendix.
*The author discusses both boys and girls, the sexist views our society holds and how those views effects their development
*The author offers suggestions for helping children nurture talents that may not be their preferred way of behaving

CONS:
*The author rarely shows any engagement with the subject and the brief mo ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2013 Emily rated it did not like it

I started to read this, but decided to quit early on. The writer's lazy conflation of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and phenotype was bad enough, but claiming that babies with ambiguous genitalia should, by default, be given surgery to create male genitals and raised as male was the last straw. That is a terrible idea. The author is very clear about being a fan of traditional gender roles and treating boys and girls completely differently even though, as she admits, the ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2011 A.R. McKenna rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned, gender-studies

I was really excited about this one, but I cannot go further. The book (or I should say the writer) is extremely gender essentialist and it just rubs me the wrong way. A lot of swooping generalizations and no conversation about gender that is significant. I love science but I don't like science meddling with gender. Why? Because gender is socially constructed. This is my opinion, though. As a feminist who believes that gender doesn't just include FEMALE or MALE, I just had to put it down.

What r ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 BookChampions rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminism, parenting

Ever since I've been in college, I've been studying, reading about and challenging others about gender stereotypes, perceived and biological gender differences, and alternatives to traditional gender roles. Now that I am going to embark on the awesome journey of raising a child, I'm happy to have come across Lise Eliot's thoughtful and well-argued book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. It gave me an opportunity, now three months before my baby's birth, to review and potentially revise some of my stances Ever since I've been in college, I've been studying, reading about and challenging others about gender stereotypes, perceived and biological gender differences, and alternatives to traditional gender roles. Now that I am going to embark on the awesome journey of raising a child, I'm happy to have come across Lise Eliot's thoughtful and well-argued book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. It gave me an opportunity, now three months before my baby's birth, to review and potentially revise some of my stances on gender development.

What I found was refreshing, particularly because it proved what I had come to on my own: that while biology may endow girls and boys with a particular inclination toward a certain characteristic (such as aggression, empathy, creativity or physical activity), we are malleable selves and we are not slaves to biology. Eliot is thorough, though, in proving that biology does, in fact, determine certain differences in gender, but they are much more slim than most people think.

In a sense, the Nature/Nurture debate is essentially dead. It's no longer a question of whether gender is determined by biology or the world around us. Instead, the new question is to what extent Nurture can make a difference. Eliot, I believe, would say that Nurture is capable of making a tremendous difference in a young person's life and in eliminating harmful gender division. Parents and teachers have the ability to free children from the straightjacket of gender, and one doesn't have to keep the gender of one's child hidden from the world for five years, as a recent set of parents did, in order to do so.

The best parts of the book were the Parenting Tips that close each chapter. I have them dog-eared for easy reference. I admit that the book isn't always the most exciting read. I don't typically like to read nonfiction texts heavy on facts and scientific data (and I did begin to skim some of the data after I began to trust that Eliot knows her stuff and let's just leave it at that), but for the most part it was a thoroughly engaging read that I believe will be helpful once the pink or the blue outfits and the gendered toys start pouring in from my well-meaning family and friends. I can make sure my daughter or son is not exactly "free" from gender, but not pinned down by it either. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2011 E rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sciences

Why deny innate gender differences? Why not admit that it's all biological?

Because such thinking is socially lazy, bordering on the irresponsible. History and geography prove that societies vary and change greatly - constantly - throughout time and space, yet a mainstream narrative finds it much more important and interesting to examine our biologies for the reasons for gender differences. The pop science journalists of Newsweek and The New York Times regularly tout the experiments that provide Why deny innate gender differences? Why not admit that it's all biological?

Because such thinking is socially lazy, bordering on the irresponsible. History and geography prove that societies vary and change greatly - constantly - throughout time and space, yet a mainstream narrative finds it much more important and interesting to examine our biologies for the reasons for gender differences. The pop science journalists of Newsweek and The New York Times regularly tout the experiments that provide chauvinist headlines, essentially demanding, "Why not try to make biology prove sexism, racism and lookism, rather than try to teach ourselves how to kick these nasty habits?"

In discussing this book, one of my parents echoed another quoted by Eliot: "We were the generation that said, 'There are no natural gender differences. It's all nurture and not nature.' And then our kids proved us wrong. The girls wanted dolls and the boys wanted guns, no matter how hard we tried, and we had to admit it." My parents did a wonderful job of raising my brother and me, trying to discourage whatever sexism they could detect. But we, the children of the Baby Boomers, hardly grew up in a gender neutral society. We were absolutely bombarded with advertisements and advertisements masquerading as children's television that screamed, "Girls need BARBIES, DISNEY PRINCESSES, LITTLE MISS MAKE-UP, JEM JEWELERAGOUS, STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE, RAINBOW BRITE, CAREBEARS, AND MY LITTLE PONIES!" and "Real boys like HE-MAN, GHOSTBUSTERS, BATTLE BEASTS, THUNDER CATS, TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE, AND NINJA TURTLES!" ad nauseam. No sooner did my parents swear we would never own one of these plastic idols of patriarchy than a babysitter or a playmate or a neighbor would give it to us as a birthday present. If we didn't have one, our playmates invariably owned the entire set. My mother encouraged me to wear jeans, play baseball and watch "Star Wars" with my brother, reminding me that she wasn't allowed to wear pants to school until 1969. But my brother was never encouraged to wear dresses, play tea party, or watch "Sleeping Beauty." Any fellow American reading this knows that if he had been encouraged in such a way, the Gender Rules would have been read to him by playmates and the parents of playmates alike.

And yet, step out of your own society and the rules are NOT universal. Boys play with dolls at nursery school in France. Men in Russia greet each other with kisses. Traditional male garb in North Africa, Saudi Arabia and South Asia resembles Western dresses more than trousers. And boy did the 18th century European man love makeup, tights and heels. Anyone taking ALL cultures at ALL points in history into account has to concede that few gender behaviors are constant. Even the strongest patterns have proven transient. Writing this while wearing slacks, I'm doing something Western women have been doing for less than a century. The shock and hesitance at such freedom demonstrated in "A League of Their Own" now seems laughably outdated and oppressive, yet our society perpetuates such oppression of men with the ban on dresses, pumps and makeup. My parents' was not the generation that tried and were proven wrong. They were members of a small faction of their generation that didn't consider all the variables and, unfortunately, gave up.

I don't want to. Like Eliot, we should check ourselves for sexist ticks after every venture into society. Prejudice survives by virtue of being insidious, though never as microscopic as our genes.

Of course, there are sex differences. These biological differences do influence gender identity significantly, but not nearly as significantly as the mainstream narrative suggests. Lise Eliot says it best in her foreword: "Fundamentally, men and women are more similar than different. Or, as some have more succinctly put it: 'Men are from North Dakota, women are from South Dakota.' "

Her book is geared primarily at parents, offering highly detailed tips for battling social pressure at various stages of development. I plan to read it again when the advice is more immediately relevant to my experience. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2018 Frrobins rated it it was ok

I liked the first half of this book a lot more than the second half. I loved her explanation of how the differences between sexes are small and there is more overlap than difference, and I also thought the research about the influence of siblings of the opposite sex was interesting as I have one of each and both of my children have the same interest in playing with the same toys. So reading that my son being the older sibling was likely responsible made sense.

After awhile it was as if she got to I liked the first half of this book a lot more than the second half. I loved her explanation of how the differences between sexes are small and there is more overlap than difference, and I also thought the research about the influence of siblings of the opposite sex was interesting as I have one of each and both of my children have the same interest in playing with the same toys. So reading that my son being the older sibling was likely responsible made sense.

After awhile it was as if she got too overwhelmed in the details of the research, and the message that the differences start small and the environment impacts them got lost. Overall I was glad to finish it.

I also took offense to two things, first, as a parent of an autistic child, I was upset about how autism is portrayed in the book. My son is not a tragedy, autism is not a devastating disorder, autistic people and children have many strengths that are overlooked, and he was born autistic, he didn't become that way because we didn't play with him enough. The ableism was appalling.

I was also horrified by her section on mental health among teens. I am a mental health counselor who has worked in a mental hospital with adolescent boys and girls, and the statement that boys are less likely to suffer from depression than girls because they are emotionally resilient was frankly irresponsible. Depression in boys is overlooked because culturally, boys are not allowed to express any emotion other than happiness or anger, so when boys feel sad or depressed, they act out in anger. Thus we have this horrible cycle of boys behaving aggressively at school, teachers and other adults not seeing this as a cry for help and punishing them rather than getting them treatment, which makes the depression worse. Adolescent boys are more likely to successfully commit suicide than girls because they don't ask for help and because their cries for help (aggression) are misread. Just because someone doesn't express emotions doesn't mean that they are emotionally resilient, and this bordered on irresponsibility.

So basically I would only recommend with caveats. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 20, 2010 Marie rated it really liked it

Shelves: children, nonfiction

As the mother of three sons, I've always been interested in learning more about what is hardwired into males and females, and what is influenced by environment. So when I heard about this book, I immediately put it on hold at the library.

Eliot is a neuroscientist, a graduate from Harvard and Columbia, an associate professor of neuroscience, and mother of two sons and a daughter. The basic premise of the book is that although yes, males and females have biologically based differences, many of ou As the mother of three sons, I've always been interested in learning more about what is hardwired into males and females, and what is influenced by environment. So when I heard about this book, I immediately put it on hold at the library.

Eliot is a neuroscientist, a graduate from Harvard and Columbia, an associate professor of neuroscience, and mother of two sons and a daughter. The basic premise of the book is that although yes, males and females have biologically based differences, many of our differences are due to environment and childrearing (or in other words, nurture).

She painstakingly analyzes the studies about male-female differences and helps the reader decipher what's been proven and what's been simply extrapolated (and exaggerated).

Here's what's been proven:

*Boys are as much as four times more likely to experience learning and developmental disorders, including autism, ADD, and dyslexia. They are 73% more likely to die in accidents and more than twice as likely to be the victims of voilent crimes.

*Girls are at least twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. They are twice as likely as boys to attempt suicide (but boys are three times more likely to succeed at it).

*Girls get better grades, but boys get higher SAT scores.

*Males have bigger brains, but they are also less likely to survive at birth and through the first year of life. They are also more likely to be miscarried.

*Girls develop more quickly in the womb and in the first few years of life. Yes, there's proof that females mature more quickly than boys.

Along with these, Eliot refutes a lot of gender-related myths out there as well. Many scientific studies showing differences between males and females were later refuted, but those findings were not published in the popular press.

Contrary to the 1970s, "Free to Be You and Me" era, now with the proliferation of boy and girl experts and John Gray types, parents seem to jump all over supposed gender differences, using them to excuse behavior and indulge in stereotypes. (Don't get me started on the pink/princess craze...or conversely, the fact that nearly all boy clothing features sports or action figures!)

Eliot tackles several phases in a person's life (including gestation) and describes the scientific data and environmental influences on shaping a person's personality. She gives excellent recommendations for fighting against stereotypes and helping children achieve their full potential, no matter their gender.

I strongly recommend this book for parents of boys and girls, teachers, and anyone who deals regularly with children. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 31, 2009 Shannon rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Parents

Shelves: parenting

Abbreviated review - full review appears on Amazon.Com

Lise Eliot's book focuses primarily on the slight differences between male and female brains in prenatal fetuses and in infants, and how those differences may grow over time through cultural influences. She distinguishes between the effects of hormones, developmental differences, and cultural expectations and impacts. What is particularly notable is that she never makes a statement without listing an associated study. In fact, she takes apart ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2018 James rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: People who interact with small children

Shelves: non-fiction

One of the main points of this book is that much of the research on gender characteristics in young children is inconclusive or just plain wrong and that the media likes covering the studies with extreme results. Considering how many agendas exist for raising children, religious, conservative, etc., it's hard to figure out who's right without using well designed, large studies based on evidence and not philosophy or opinion. A good portion of the book is devoted to this.

In addition, the author c ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2009 Veronica rated it really liked it

Eliot takes a much debated issue - are girls and boys fundamentally different? - and sets out with a well restrained heart. Eliot painstakingly goes thru all available scientific research and popular culture books to sort out the truth. Are men from Mars and women from Venus? In a nutshell, no.

What Eliot does is walk us thru the research, data and the facts about the differences. I say painstakingly because this 315 page tome has almost 40 pages of endnotes and 45 pages of bibliography and zero Eliot takes a much debated issue - are girls and boys fundamentally different? - and sets out with a well restrained heart. Eliot painstakingly goes thru all available scientific research and popular culture books to sort out the truth. Are men from Mars and women from Venus? In a nutshell, no.

What Eliot does is walk us thru the research, data and the facts about the differences. I say painstakingly because this 315 page tome has almost 40 pages of endnotes and 45 pages of bibliography and zero fluff. Some might find this book too much - to that I say, read the sections you want to read. Even a paragraph is worthy of your time. Take small bites if you must, you won't be disappointed.

By now I hope you get the idea that Eliot has given us a book that puts all the research in perspective. She's not far left nor far right. As the mom of two boys and one girl, she has personal interest in each side of the debate.

Eliot does a great job at taking the popular culture literature that tells us that boys and girls are so different they can't be taught together and rips it to shreds WITH DATA! Yet, she also acknowledges the boy crisis as a real phenomena WITH DATA!

And this is where I think the book is genius. Eliot gives us so much data to prove her conclusions that you find yourself nodding along with one idea, then she switches over to the "counter" issue and you nod along. Here's what I mean:

Prenatal testosterone does make a difference to how boys and girls act and think, but not as much as we think. There are biological differences to the hormone levels, but it is not the end all be all reason why boys are more aggressive, better at math or whatnot.

Eliot shows us that nature does give boys and girls their own small advantages in life, but it is our socialization that exasperates them to such an extreme that we think that bravery is masculine and the need for emotional attention is feminine. Example: In an experiment where moms were asked to guess how steep an incline their infants can climb down - face first - the moms underestimated the girls by 9 degrees. This suggests that even at infancy moms already believe that girls can't be as brave or agile at such a young age. "Girls attempted and successfully descended slopes ranging in angle from 10 degress to 46 degress, while boys attempted slopes between 12 and 38 degree (pp 66-67)." Thus no difference in performance, but a big difference in expectation. Does this mean that moms are holding back their girls?

Eliot also points out that boys are, on average, larger at birth than girls. We usually think about how tough this might had been on the woman pushing an extra few pounds of baby out, but Eliot reminds us that this is tough on the newborn too. This could be why boys are fussier babies. Where our gender ideas come into play is that Eliot points to research that shows that parents are more willing to let baby boys cry longer than baby girls. This is the beginning of toughening our boys out AND where they start to learn that expressing their emotions doesn't pay. Are we shushing our boys into their un-emo ways?

Eliot covers the gamut from in utero thru the teen years, from emotions to math skills.

What I learned here is simple and honestly pretty much what I've been saying for years too. Yes, girls and boys are different, they have biological differences, but most of the differences we see are created. Eliot shows us the research that proves over and over that there are bigger differences within genders than between them. That the differences that are there are small. SMALL!

But it also challenged me to reexamine my views of gender and how we are socializing our kids. This book didn't just reaffirm my beliefs, but it taught me a lot about how we see gender.
...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2012 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, fiction, social-issues

Pink Brain, Blue Brain is a thorough investigation into gender differences by neuroscientist Lise Eliot. With a nuanced and scientific perspective, she delves into all the major cognitive gender differences observed in children and adults and explores the source of these differences. Initial chapters focus first on babies, then toddlers, then preschoolers and older, and later chapters address verbal differences, math differences, and emotional/interpersonal differences.

The major concept that th Pink Brain, Blue Brain is a thorough investigation into gender differences by neuroscientist Lise Eliot. With a nuanced and scientific perspective, she delves into all the major cognitive gender differences observed in children and adults and explores the source of these differences. Initial chapters focus first on babies, then toddlers, then preschoolers and older, and later chapters address verbal differences, math differences, and emotional/interpersonal differences.

The major concept that this book reinforced for me is that for any given difference it is not a question of nature OR nurture (genetic or environmental), but rather almost always a question of nature AND nurture. There are minor differences that can be attributed to things such as hormone levels or seemingly innate brain differences, but these differences are in all cases very small, and they grow into much larger differences through the environment the child is in. A small tendency towards one behavior or another can quickly become reinforced and enlarged when a child continually chooses or is encouraged to participate in that behavior - and vice versa. Furthermore, adult expectations for the behavior of one gender or another can further reinforce small differences. In each chapter, Eliot discusses many studies that have been done exploring the origins of gender differences - and demonstrating the ways in which adults set subconscious expectations - and concludes the chapter with many suggestions that parents, caregivers, and teachers can follow to minimize the exaggeration of small differences and instead encourage every child to develop every aspect of their abilities to their full potential.

I was hoping that Eliot would spend more time discussing the brain mechanisms involved in the nature and nurture cycle, but she only addresses this a little bit in the introduction. The main mechanism at work here is plasticity of the brain - that things we experience actually change our brain - and I think it is very important to understand. A brain difference in an adult does NOT mean that it is genetic: as Eliot points out, since we are biological creatures, of course any difference in behavior is going to stem from a biological difference, but that says nothing about how that biological difference came about.

There were just a couple things Eliot said, almost in passing, that I disagreed with, but they do not majorly detract from the book. One is her attitude towards competition: she said something to the effect that since we live in a competitive society, it is important for children to have some experience with competition. I do not agree with this perspective; I think that if children had less exposure to competition our society as a whole could become less competitive. The other was when she mentioned in passing that she encouraged her daughter in math by giving her rewards: there have been many studies that demonstrate that rewards destroy intrinsic motivation for the behavior being rewarded, so this is very much NOT a healthy way to encourage a girl in a traditionally male subject such as math.

However, all my minor caveats aside, it is overall an excellent book and I highly recommend it to anyone involved with children or interested in these topics. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2009 Sally rated it really liked it

Shelves: science, sexuality, parenting

This careful yet very readable examination of scientific research on brain differences between the sexes -- prenatal, infant, childhood, teen -- is an antidote to media hype about vast, obvious differences. A brain scientist, the author details the biological differences (or lack of difference) revealed by current research and suggests strategies for parents and teachers to help children of both sexes reach their full potentials. She points out that much research on sex differences in male/femal ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2010 Lisa rated it really liked it

This book was great. It does away with many old myths and presumptions about boys and girls. Here are 9 things I will never forget after reading this book. #1 The corpus callosum is the same in both sexes. #2 There is a "first puberty" at 3 months. #3 soy formula is banned in the UK. #4 pushing more writing ability in Kindergarten doesn't necessarily benefit boys because of their slower rate to develop fine motor skills. #5 most elementary school teachers are female, which can have all kinds of ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 26, 2009 Marissa Morrison rated it it was amazing

I think that this book is an important one. Eliot shows how gender differences occur naturally and become stronger through nurture. Since young children are strongly influenced by their gender identity and tend to self-segregate, it's up to parents to strongly nudge them toward "opposite gender" toys and activities. A typical girl spends hundreds of hours in the preschool years playing mommy in her toy kitchen or painting at an easel--so she will grow stronger in verbal, empathetic, and fine mot ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Mireille Duval rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013, shelf-emptying-2013, non-fiction

A lot of very interesting research, well presented, in a topic that I care about a lot. Of course, the fact that a lot of research concluded that there are no measurable differences in the brains of boys and girls make for some underwhelming results at times, but it forces a very interesting reflexion on how society/culture/nurture/etc. is the thing to "blame" for differences between boys and girls. I found the beginning very drab (in general I like more anecdotes or metaphors in my non-fiction) ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2012 Holly rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: all the parents, ever

Recommended to Holly by: Barbara Trailanoia

Shelves: try-again-later, non-fiction, feminism

I really enjoyed reading this book up until the minutes I stopped reading it. It was indformative, and well written, and had actual tips and things to do to help your child. I loved it. But the second I stopped reading it, I stopped thinking about it. I want to finish it, but I haven't the inclination. To the try-again-later shelf you go, Pink Brain, Blue Brain! ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2018 Gina rated it really liked it

I didn't actually finish the book because it was due back to the library but I read almost half so I'm writing a review anyway.
It was really interesting! The main argument is that while the are some biological differences between boys and girls, they're actually really tiny in comparison to the differences among all kids. Society does way more to exaggerate differences. The author directly answers some other books that exaggerate differences, which I found interesting.

An analogy is like men ar ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it liked it

(This is my review and it was originally posted on Elevate Difference).

Given the heavy media coverage about studies that “prove” significant, inborn differences between males and females, it is no surprise that we excuse or accept certain behaviors depending on whether they come from a boy or a girl. We are often led to believe that it is natural for a boy to be athletic and for a girl to demonstrate more empathy because it is part of their biology and something that cannot be helped one way or (This is my review and it was originally posted on Elevate Difference).

Given the heavy media coverage about studies that “prove” significant, inborn differences between males and females, it is no surprise that we excuse or accept certain behaviors depending on whether they come from a boy or a girl. We are often led to believe that it is natural for a boy to be athletic and for a girl to demonstrate more empathy because it is part of their biology and something that cannot be helped one way or another. If this were true, we would have to resign ourselves to our appropriate gender roles and stick to the activities and behaviors assigned to us by nature.

Not so, says Eliot. Right off the bat, Pink Brain, Blue Brain shows us that we must examine these studies critically in order to appreciate their message. Eliot goes through various popular studies with a fine-toothed comb and comes away with a vastly different interpretation of the data. Rather than proving innate differences between boys and girls, instead we see that these differences are really not as large as they appear and that the outcomes have been subtly manipulated and phrased in ways that present the results as far more provocative, and therefore popular with the media.

After a close scrutiny of the studies, Eliot goes on to investigate the various claims of the differences between boys and girls starting at conception and ending around puberty. Though she is a neuroscientist, Eliot provides well thought out sociological critiques along with useful explanations of biology. She fuses both the nature and nurture aspects of development to show that gender gaps are not just innate or taught, but oftentimes both. What nature instills, society tends to exaggerate. The consequences are that these gender stereotypes become self-fulfilling prophecies, and this hurts both boys and girls.

Particularly useful to those who strive to raise well-balanced children are the ideas and tips that Eliot includes at the end of nearly every chapter. For instance, she recommends pet care as a way to teach and encourage a sense of nurturing in young boys. Likewise, she suggests getting girls involved in chess in order to help foster a healthy dose of competition and to improve spatial analysis skills. We may have been dealt a specific set of cards at birth, but this by no means should limit us in what we achieve and how we excel. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2014 Histteach24 rated it liked it

The book was very informative but I found it slow through the "brain talk". Mind you I know this was written by a neuroscience professional and not a psychologist. I only discovered that after already starting the book. I was expecting it to be more case studies, less science, so it was my fault for not reading about the author beforehand.
Regardless, she made interesting points that can be used by educators and parents. Of course, you probably should read the book as you prepare to have children ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 16, 2016 Mallory rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, slp

"Spatial skills are more like nipples than like antlers....". This quote alone should be sufficient recommendation for this book. Truly, this book does an amazing job of discussing the most current brain studies on sex differences in children, up through adulthood. Primarily that there are few established differences that come from biology, and that boys and girls are more influenced by their environment than by any significant difference in brain structure. Dr. Eliot gives concrete examples of ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 11, 2010 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: feminism, grad-school-trash

Eliot offers a good rebuttal to Sax, but still falls short of really challenging the way we think about gender. She is very essentialist and normalizing, just like Sax, in her distinctions between boys and girls. I'm very against using "science" to "prove" differences between gender. Science can only prove sexual differences, not gender. Sex is biological; gender is much more complicated. She does not offer any insight into the influences of race, culture, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexuality (w ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 21, 2018 Cassi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: have

This book recommended to me by My Little Milkaholic's Montessori teacher because i worry about everything! I really liked how Dr. Eliot started at the very beginning and cited as many studies as she could find detailing how and where they were strong and where they were faulty. I really appreciated the deep biological information when trying to suss out what is innately male and female.

Her recommendations in the pre-school/kindergarten chapter helped me be confident in my kid's school and teach ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2012 Tiffany rated it it was amazing

I'm just gonna go ahead and rate this 5 stars right now, even though I'm only halfway through. This book is totally informative, gives all kinds of evidence to back up claims, and makes me think! Should be a must-read for every parent, teacher, guardian, etc. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2014 Gail rated it liked it

Determined to figure out how much of my toddlers’ divergent behavior is based upon innate gender difference, I read Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender and the first 100 pages of Lise Eliot’s Pink Brain, Blue Brain (the introduction and chapters covering prenatal development and infancy, since both authors agree that these periods are key to determining whether only nurture is to blame for pre-pubertal differences between boys and girls). Though the two writers agree on just about every scientif ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 11, 2021 Svetlana rated it it was ok

Bewildering! For all her talk about small sex differences, this book is nothing BUT ridiculous magnification of difference between boys and girls. I found this so disappointing to read and really baffled how the author could make such ludicrous claims about male/female difference. The newest research puts all of this rubbish about sex difference to rest anyway. There’s more difference between individual men and women that between the sexes.

The author also has fairly weak strategies for encourag ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 03, 2022 Swati S rated it liked it

Enlightening, but a dry read. Also felt like it was slanted towards making the world better for boys and caring for their needs more than making the world better for girls. While I'm not disagreeing that we should make the world better for boys, I feel like the whole point of this book (I thought) was a balance and making the world better for ALL kids. And undoing gender stereotypes so we can raise boys, girls, and gender fluid children to their maximum potential regardless of gender.

It was cert ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 21, 2019 Jessica rated it liked it

Overall liked it and thought the conclusions were pretty solid based on the evidence. Liked that Eliot tied the research to practical results. I thought it was similar to Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue. This seemed to take a deeper dive into neuroscience; I preferred the less dense approach of Parenting Beyond. If you like the nitty gritty, read this.

flag Like · see review

Sep 19, 2017 Erica rated it really liked it

Great message, but I ended up skimming a lot of her summaries of studies. Message: the brain is highly malleable and learns lessons based on usage--meaning that cultural norms tend to become ingrained in gendered behavior.

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Nonfiction

122 users

Parenting

92 users

Science

50 users

Feminism

49 users

Psychology

46 users

Gender

41 users

Sociology

17 users

Gender > Gender Studies

15 users

Biology > Neuroscience

9 users

Education

7 users

See top shelves…

About Lise Eliot

Lise Eliot

17 followers

Lise Eliot is a mother of three, and the Associate Professor of Neuroscience at The Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University. She is the author of What’s Going On In There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life.