Pink and Blue

I have recently become an avid reader of Newsweek Magazine. I not only find the content covered rich and appealing, but I find the process – the way in which the content is presented – to be fairly unbiased and scientific, something typically rare in today’s world.  I found this article especially interesting because of the studies we have been doing with the “Women & Social Icons” initiative of the WEFC, as well as with Jness™ (an organization for women whose unique education has transformed my experience and understanding of my gender, so much so that I am helping launch it in NYC). If you don’t want to take the time to read the whole article, entitled Pink Brain, Blue Brain, here is the paragraph I find the most fascinating, most important and, indeed, most exciting. Speaking of studies done on children, this is what Sharon Begley had to say:

“In one, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the “boys” (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the “girls” (actually boys) as happy and socially engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens. In another study, mothers estimated how steep a slope their 11-month-olds could crawl down. Moms of boys got it right to within one degree; moms of girls underestimated what their daughters could do by nine degrees, even though there are no differences in the motor skills of infant boys and girls. But that prejudice may cause parents to unconsciously limit their daughter’s physical activity. How we perceive children—sociable or remote, physically bold or reticent—shapes how we treat them and therefore what experiences we give them. Since life leaves footprints on the very structure and function of the brain, these various experiences produce sex differences in adult behavior and brains—the result not of innate and inborn nature but of nurture.”

If this is true, imagine what could be possible for both genders when we evolve our prejudices?