Delusions of Gender

A vehement attack on the latest pseudo-scientific claims about the differences between the sexes with the evidence to back it up.Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory. Yet popular books, magazines and even scientific articles increasingly defend inequalities by citing immutable biological differences between the male and female brain. Why are there so few women in science and engineering, so few men in the laundry room? Well, they say, its our brains. Drawing on the latest research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and education, Delusions of Gender rebuts these claims, showing how old myths, dressed up in new scientific finery, help perpetuate the status quo. Cordelia Fine reveals the brains remarkable plasticity, shows the substantial influence of culture on identity, and, ultimately, exposes just how much of what we consider hardwired is actually malleable. This startling, original and witty book shows the surprising extent to which boys and girls, men and women are made and not born.

Cordelia Fine is a Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of much-acclaimed A Mind of Its Own (Icon, 2006) and Testosterone Rex (Icon, 2017).