Explained: Are male and female brains different?

Rippon goes into modern neuroscience and urges the reader to move beyond a binary view of people’s brains and instead to see these as highly individualised, profoundly adaptable, and full of unbounded potential.

“As The Gendered Brain reveals, conclusive findings about sex-linked brain differences have failed to materialize. Beyond the ‘missing five ounces’ of female brain – gloated about since the nineteenth century – modern neuroscientists have identified no decisive, category-defining differences between the brains of men and women,” Nature magazine writes in its review.

The Guardian’s review advises readers: “All systemising brains out there owe it to themselves to read this calm and logical collection of evidence and science, and all empathisers will understand its importance.”

The Guardian has also published an interview with the author, quoting her as saying: “We are at the point where we need to say, ‘Forget the male and female brain; it’s a distraction, it’s inaccurate.’ It’s possibly harmful, too, because it’s used as a hook to say, well, there’s no point girls doing science because they haven’t got a science brain, or boys shouldn’t be emotional or should want to lead.”