I find this topic really interesting. Recently (and unfortunately I didn't take note of where I found them) I came across a couple of different bits of information. I will not doubt use incorrect terminology out of ignorance so apologies in advance. The first was a TED talk by a neuroscientist who mentioned for various reasons, the vast majority of healthy brains they get to dissect and study are men's brains (because they're more likely to have fatal accidents when they're young and because women are more likely to donate their partner�s organs than men are)**. The second was a blog on a psychology journal website where the author was lamenting what he felt was an underlying political correctness in neuroscience where people were no longer looking for differences between men and women�s brains when he felt that there were differences and that to not study them was to the detriment of women's mental health.
Not long after I came across these two things a friend who is a psych lecturer recommended the book "Left Brain, Right Brain - Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience" by Sally Springer and Geor Deutsch (neuroscience being one of my many passing fads�) It is a summary of current research in brain science and from my quick search on it before I purchased it, it seemed to show that is well regarded. This book backs up part of Bostonian's post, which is that it appears women generally use both hemispheres in their thinking processes whereas men's brains are more lateralised. The authors emphasised that this is all that is really known at this point � no one really knows yet what this means (if anything) for intelligence, hemisphere asymmetry etc.
I absolutely consider myself a feminist and I certainly have had and understand concerns about using cognitive differences to make generalisations about gender, but for me what is relevant in all this is that this difference in brain function does appear to exist. By not exploring it we do women and girls a disservice. It means our concepts of learning are potentially based on what works for men, it means our intelligence tests are potentially assessing intelligence in ways that are not fully reflecting women�s potential (in sofar as they truly reflect anyone�s potential). Of course in addition to those kinds of concerns there is the potential for women to miss out on receiving the best possible treatment for mental illness and brain damage, among other things, if research is focused on men�s brains or on denying difference.
I certainly admit that my knowledge of this area is minimal and that I know I am linking potentially unrelated and in the case of the blog and the TED talk, potentially unverified, bits of information to make these assumptions. But even without those initial bits of information the fact that there is hemispheric asymmetry and that women do appear to access areas of their brains in ways that differ to men is cause for further exploration as far as I�m concerned (I certainly don�t mean to imply that those things I list above as possibilities are givens or are even likely - just seemingly possible). It seems to me that the world should (emphasis on SHOULD) be adult enough to understand that equal doesn�t equate to same � oh, scrap that, of course it�s not � otherwise we wouldn�t need this board!
** Edit - I should point out that I am aware that there are other ways of researching brains that don't require the person to be dead and would allow for both men and women to be studied - but I assume there are benefits in dissecting actual brains as well as functioning ones
