Differences between men and women

Author: (German) Rittel et al. (Translated by Wang Yurong)
Translator: Wang Yurong
Country of Origin:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Assembly toys make it possible. Women's fear of mathematics—abstract tasks—is largely cultivated gradually. So how can we explain that German female engineers constitute only a small proportion? No one would seriously attribute this obvious asymmetry to innate differences between men and women. Therefore, a female mechanical professor at the University of California, Berkeley, took a defensive stance. Alice Agogino found that female students in design classes had significantly poorer academic performance since 1991 compared to before 1991. At first, Agogino was surprised, but she quickly found the reason: the teaching plan for 1991 included a course on computer-aided design (CAD). A new computer program replaced three-dimensional design done on paper and drafting tables. CAD enabled a leap in spatial planning and design, but unlike paper sketches, it required higher abstract thinking skills from users.
After the semester ended, a quarter of the female students struggled to learn, and some even failed the exam. This trend made Alice Agogino cautious, so she organized tutoring classes for these students on weekends. She began to train the female students' spatial imagination using as intuitive methods as possible. She brought some geometric shapes for the students to hold and rotate freely. She even brought assembly toys to class—this method successfully demonstrated her point. So far, 500 female mechanical students have participated in Alice Agogino's practical spatial imagination course and found that during the semester, the gender gap in grades disappeared.
Silent males "Female language centers are much larger than male language centers!" This was the headline in many world newspapers in December 1997. It caused a huge stir. The research community, especially male researchers, was speechless. This was a paper by Australian linguist Jenny Harlaftis published in the famous scientific journal Neurology in its December 1997 issue. She found that female language centers in the brain were about one-third larger than those in males. What drew widespread attention was that male brains are 15% larger than female brains. In other words, if we consider the size difference between male and female brains, a significant portion of the female brain is dedicated to creating and processing language. Language is an advantage for women, and this was already undeniable before Harlaftis's discovery. So why is this the case? To this day, no one has offered a satisfactory explanation.
"The chattering housewife" These old-fashioned descriptions suggest that women use a richer vocabulary and are more verbose when speaking. Frankly, if two women are having an in-depth discussion, others might say they are "chattering," but when two men do the same thing, others think they are indeed "negotiating." These remarks lack appreciation, but they indirectly show that our society has long recognized the different language skills and applications of men and women. Not only do many idioms prove that women have greater linguistic talent, but countless scientific experiments and aptitude tests also confirm that women and girls are better at applying language. Jenny Harlaftis wanted to know why this is the case. But to this day, no one has provided a satisfactory answer. Is it hormones? Or different brain metabolism? Blood supply? Or is it that women are destined to be more flexible with language? To find the answer, this linguist from the University of Sydney began to seek strong evidence.
Fate's mockery In the anatomy lab of a university clinic, Jenny Harlaftis began her work. She compared the brains of ten women and ten men, with an important prerequisite that these brains must be intact. Jenny Harlaftis sliced these brains into three-millimeter-thick sections and measured two key language centers—the Broca's area and the Wernicke's area. The Wernicke's area is named after its discoverer, the German anatomist Carl Wernicke in the mid-19th century. It is located behind the ear and processes sounds and noises. Jenny Harlaftis believed that this part of the female brain was about 30% larger than that of males. The Broca's area is located above the ear and is named after the French surgeon Paul Broca, who lived in the same era as Carl Wernicke. Broca studied the brains of some deceased individuals who had language impairments. He found that damage in this part of the brain caused language disorders. The function of the Broca's area is to enable fluent speech. Jenny Harlaftis discovered that this region in females was about 20% larger than in males. If Paul Broca knew this, he would not rest in peace. He was one of those scholars with a poor reputation, and when he wanted to argue his biased views about women, he ignored natural scientific evidence. Since Paul Broca was a highly respected and celebrated figure at the time, his contempt for women was not isolated. Today, people can only shake their heads in bewilderment at his legacy.
In 1861, he wrote: "We can ask whether the small size of the female brain is only related to their short stature. But we must not forget that women are weaker than men, and this difference should not be exaggerated but is still real. Therefore, we can make the following hypothesis: the relatively small size of the female brain is partly due to their frailty and partly due to their inferior intelligence." Now, it is a twist of fate that a female scientist has disproven the absurdity of Broca's prejudiced views, which had long been ingrained in the minds of generations of men. She completely refuted his outrageous claims, which had fueled prejudice against women. New scientific research continues to emerge, arguing that biological differences give women an advantage in language. Jenny Harlaftis warns against hasty conclusions. She points out that parents may unconsciously tend to focus on developing their daughters' language skills. Therefore, the education they receive may also make girls more linguistically gifted than boys. It seems that women's exceptional language skills are the result of both natural forces and societal influences.
It goes without saying that women begin to further develop their language advantages at an early age in childhood. Long before girls learn to walk, they start babbling. Fathers have to wait longer for their sons to say "daddy" or "mommy." Around the age of three, girls can already express themselves more clearly, while boys take at least a year to reach the same level. In school, girls' language advantages continue to develop compared to boys. In terms of the range of language skills, girls' proficiency can be comparable to that of boys who are one or two years older. Girls generally have a larger vocabulary, speak more fluently and quickly, and make fewer grammatical errors. Similarly, in other language-related subjects, such as reading and writing, girls outperform boys. Additionally, girls find it easier to learn foreign languages. Their career choices also reflect their preference for language. Jobs like translation have a higher proportion of women. Just look at the lecture halls of translation training schools to see this. In Germany, 85% of students in such programs are female. The same is true in Austria. At the Vienna Translation Training College, there are 1,029 female students compared to only 165 male students.