Delusions of Gender

How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference

By: Cordelia Fine

Narrated by: Maria Brendel

It's the 21st century, and although we tried to rear unisex children - boys who play with dolls and girls who like trucks - we failed. Even though the glass ceiling is cracked, most women stay comfortably beneath it. And everywhere we hear about vitally important "hardwired" differences between male and female brains. The neuroscience that we read about in magazines, newspaper articles, books, and sometimes even scientific journals increasingly tells a tale of two brains, and the result is more often than not a validation of the status quo. Women, it seems, are just too intuitive for math; men too focused for housework.

Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, Cordelia Fine debunks the myth of hardwired differences between men’s and women's brains, unraveling the evidence behind such claims as men's brains aren't wired for empathy and women's brains aren't made to fix cars. She then goes one step further, offering a very different explanation of the dissimilarities between men's and women's behavior. Instead of a "male brain" and a "female brain", Fine gives us a glimpse of plastic, mutable minds that are continuously influenced by cultural assumptions about gender.

Passionately argued and unfailingly astute, Delusions of Gender provides us with a much-needed corrective to the belief that men's and women's brains are intrinsically different - a belief that, as Fine shows with insight and humor, all too often works to the detriment of ourselves and our society.

©2010 Cordelia Fine (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Fine's] sharp tongue is tempered with humor.... Read this book and see how complex and fascinating the whole issue is." ( The New York Times)

Strongly backed up by research

The author was very effective in presenting copious research studies surrounding gender while keeping the overall narritive continuously interesting and engaging. Excellent book on the subject.

Great listen!

The book is interesting and full of well thought out research and arguments. The performance definitely adds to the story, it's probably one of the best I've heard. Would definitely recommend this book to friends interested in the topic!

Necessary reading

We like to congratulate ourselves often for living in an age of scientific objectivity, unclouded by gender stereotypes of past generations who used science to prove why men are superior to women. Fine, study by study, demonstrates why our self-congratulations is unfounded.

Valuable discussion of Gender but way too long

Message and ideas could have been delivered in a much more concise manner. While I was convinced message was aligned with my personal outlook. I don't think data is rigorous enough to convince a die hard neurosexist and way too repetitive for me... having said this I did find the ideas themselves worthwhile.

Great information, good narration

Great information, good narration, but not quite a 5 star book. The best parts are where the author debunks poorly designed neuroscience studies.

Informative, interesting, inspiring

This book was really informative, interesting, and inspiring to me. I feel like the studies cited were done thoroughly and well and I just found the content so intriguing, as I’m newer to these types of topics. I definitely recommend, it’s worth the read.

Very well written, highly informative

The author did a great job at pointing out the bad designs, poor scientific methodology, and outright fabrications of those who purport a difference in innate ability between the sexes. highly recommend.

I would have appreciated more about how gender stereotyping harms males though. It does take a primary focus on women. It would also be beneficial to include studies of trans and non-binary people's biology and lived experiences.

Brilliant discussion of gender myths

I’ve been waiting for this book all my life. I have long felt that gender stereotypes are harmful for everyone, particularly women, who are still perceived - subliminally if not overtly - as limited and less important to society than men. Such a waste of human potential and creativity! We’ve made inroads - it’s not 100 years ago anymore - but the ubiquity of gendered roles in our society continues to constrain people and justify a variety of prejudices against women that deeply affect our lives. Fine gives us everything we need to defy these stereotypes and help us create a world in which being human is the most important thing. Excellent narration as well.

Yes, women can do math and science.

This book is a very thorough, exhaustively researched debunking of the latest pseudoscience and misused brain science that is used to argue that girls are just too emotional and empathic to do math, science and engineering. It's a good book, but I wish it had been more even-handed about how gender assumptions affect men and boys as well.

A must read

This book brings into discussion my so-called truths that should not be accepted blindly. I loved it.