GINA RIPPON, author of
The Gendered Brain

‘This book is about an idea that has its roots in the eighteenth century and still persists in the twenty-first century. This is the notion that you can ‘sex’ a brain, that you can describe a brain as ‘male’ or ‘female’ and that you can attribute any differences in behaviour, abilities, achievements, personality, even hopes and expectations to the possession of one or the other type of brain. It is a notion that has inaccurately driven brain science for several centuries, underpins many damaging stereotypes and, I believe, stands in the way of social progress and equality of opportunity.’

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The twenty-first century world is one which seems determined to magnify ‘essential’ differences between men and women’s brains, from (or even before) the moment of birth. This comes via toys, clothes, books, through schools, the workplace and the influence of social media. But where do these supposed differences come from and how ‘essential’ are they?

Taking us back through centuries of sexism in science, The Gendered Brain shows how we arrived at the idea of an inferior, female brain and how cutting-edge breakthroughs in neuroscience can liberate us from this outdated understanding of what our brains can do. Rippon shows us the reality behind much of the data that is used to justify the gender gap, and explains how major breakthroughs in neuroscience will help us dispel these stereotypes and ‘neurotrash’.

The Gendered Brain is an accessible and polemic popular science book with huge repercussions for the gender debate, for education, for parenting and for how we identify ourselves.