Date Posted:21:20:00 03/27/07 Tue Author:Fawziya Rafael Subject: gender differences
The author discusses the findings of Maccoby and Jacklin that indicate that males have better math and visuospatial skills than females, and that females have better verbal abilities than males. I have previously heard of these differences but have always wondered if these cognitive differences were actually due to environmental factors as opposed to bilological, which is what the above researchers seem to imply. It seems to me that societal stereotyping of gender roles might better account for these differences than biology. Since children are very young we tend to encourage boys to play with building block and other toys known to develop visuospatial skills while girls tend to engage in more pretend play, which increases their communication skills. We also tend to encourage boys to pursue scientific and mathematical careers more than we do with girls, which also might be a contributing factor to these gender differences.
