Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps - And What We Can Do About It - Softcover

Eliot, Lise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1851687998 ISBN 13: 9781851687992

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2012

Synopsis

Turning conventional thinking about gender differences on its head, Lise Eliot issues a call to close the troubling gaps between boys and girls and help all children reach their fullest potential.
Drawing on years of exhaustive research and her own work in the field of neuroplasticity, Eliot argues that infant brains are so malleable that small differences at birth become amplified over time as parents, teachers, and the culture at large unwittingly reinforce gender stereotypes.
Indicating points of intervention where social pressures can be minimised, she offers concrete solutions for helping everyone grow into wellrounded individuals.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From the Back Cover

Over the past decade we’ve been bombarded with information about the innate differences between males and females, and many people simply accept that gender differences are hardwired from birth – boys can’t focus in the classroom, and girls are obsessed with relationships: “That’s just the way they’re built.”

In Pink Brain, Blue Brain, renowned neuroscientist Lise Eliot turns that thinking on its head. Presenting the latest science from birth to puberty, including her own work in the field of neuroplasticity, Eliot convincingly argues that infant brains are so malleable that what begin as small differences at birth become amplified over time as parents, teachers – and society at large – unwittingly reinforce gender stereotypes.

While genes and hormones play a role in creating boy–girl differences, social factors, such as how we speak to our sons and daughters, whether we encourage their physical adventurousness, and their types of peer interactions, have a far more powerful impact on brain development than previously realized. By studying how gender differences emerge, Dr Eliot has devised concrete, practical solutions for parents and teachers that explain where and when to intervene to help close the troubling gaps between boys and girls, and enable children of both sexes to reach their full potential.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1851687998
• ISBN 13: 9781851687992
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432