Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences

by Cordelia Fine

In 1915, the illustrious neurologist Dr. Charles L. Dana set out in the New York Times his professional opinion vis-à-vis the wisdom of women’s suffrage: There are some fundamental differences between the bony and the nervous structures of women and men. The brain stem of woman is relatively larger; the brain mantle and basal ganglia are smaller; the upper half of the spinal cord is smaller, the lower half, which controls the pelvis and limbs, is much larger. These are structural differences which underlie definite differences in the two sexes. I do not say that they will prevent a woman from voting, but they will prevent her from ever becoming a man, and they point the way to the fact that woman’s efficiency lies in a special field and not that of political initiative or of judicial authority in a community’s organisation. There may be an answer to this assertion, but no one can deny that the mean weight of the O.T. and C.S. in a man is 42 and in a woman 38, or that there is a significant difference in the pelvic girdle.

As a former neuroscientist, I feel confident that our understanding of the brain is far better than in the past - but I also know that compared to our understanding a hundred years hence, it will seem laughably inaccurate.