The Opposition

There are significant differences in the way that men’s and women’s brains are structured and how they use them. In an article called “Battle of the Brain: Men vs. Women,’’ Ian Grant explained that the two hemispheres of the brain communicate in unique ways when it comes to the male and female brain. The left and right sides of the brain usually have separate functions that are suited for thinking, language, and executive functions (left side) or creativity, feelings, and spatial awareness (right side). These two sides of the brain are connected by commissural fibers that send messages to either side in order for them to communicate and function properly (Grant; Suktel). If one has more commissural fibers, then they will be able to use more parts of their brain to solve problems and make decisions. According to Grant, the two sides are better connected and more communicative with each other in women. He hypothesized that this led to “better intuitive thinking, analyzing, and

drawing of conclusions.” Women are known to have more compassion and understanding of intricate social dynamics. Many scholars and researchers link this to their tendency to use intuitive and feeling-based reasoning. Scholars have also identified that when it comes to verbal tasks and memorization, which are linked to areas in the brain associated with language and memory retrieval, women outperform men in most cases (Joel and Fausto-Sterling 1-2). However, it is much different for men because they “tend to have stronger connections from front to back, which can result in heightened perception and stronger motor skills” (Grant).

It is a well-known belief that men are better at spatial tasks and processing. Excelling in spatial tasks and processing is most likely linked to the fact that men have fewer connections from side to side in the brain and more connections front to back. This is because the regions in the brain that are being linked and creating strong connections (the hippocampus and frontal cortex) lend themselves to excelling in spatial processing. Spatial processing is used in almost all STEAM-related tasks (Sax 79-81). Therefore, popular opinions over the years have pointed to the differences in how the brain connects itself as a reason why men are more apt at excelling in STEAM fields.

Interestingly, the composition of the brain also comes into play when comparing male and female brains. Gray matter and white matter are the tissues that make up everything in the brain. Gray matter is made of cell bodies that process information and control bodily movements. The information and the messages are pushed through white matter. Because of its composition, white matter is able to connect other tissues together and allow them to communicate through a system called axon signaling (Mercadante and Tadi). As explained by Ian Grant, women evidently have more gray matter in their brains but men and women have an equal amount of white matter. Nevertheless, he also stated that “women have been found to use more white matter, which connects processing centers, while men use more grey matter. This could explain why men tend to excel at task-focused projects, while women are more likely to excel at language and multitasking.” The differences in the way men and women use their brain tissues could be an integral deciding factor in how they are able to perform in academics.

Leonard Sax also identified in his book that men tend to rely on the left side of their brains for most of their executive functioning tasks. Women tend to have more balance in the use of their brains. They are better at listening to directions and implementing strategies or plans to accomplish their goals. One of the many things that scholars such as Thomas DiPrete, Nigel Barber, and Leonard Sax highlighted in their studies of females and males in school was that females were more concerned with pleasing the teacher across the board.