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A review by davidr
Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps: How We're Different and What to Do about It by Allan Pease, Barbara Pease
5.0
What a fun book! This book by the well-known authors Barbara and Allan Pease is controversial perhaps, but well-grounded in new research. Parts of the book are absolutely hilarious, but they all ring true. The basic hypothesis in this book is that the brains in men and women are organized differently. While morally, men and women are equal, they are not identical. The wiring of our brains and the effects of hormones determine how we think and behave.
The corpus callosum, the bundle of nerves which connects the left and right sides of the brain, is thicker in women's brains, and handles perhaps 30% more inter-brain connections. In addition, some brain functions, like speech, are distributed between both sides of women's brains, but are isolated in one side of men's brains. As a result, a woman's brains handle speech better. Also, women can perform true multi-tasking and multi-tracking, while men find it difficult.
The book is illustrated with numerous cartoons. While many of the cartoons are exaggerated, each one points out a truism about differences between the way men and women think. Men's brains have evolved to help men with their main job; catch lunch. As a result, their think is more focused, and they have better spatial reasoning abilities. This is especially true when a man's system is flush with testosterone. On the other hand, women's brains have evolved to aid their main job; to be nurturing. They are much better at communicating, and are better at multi-tasking. Women are also better at multi-tracking; keeping track of conversations about multiple topics simultaneously.
One of the best aspects of this book, is that not only do the authors point out the differences between men and women, but a lot of very practical advice is given. Both men and women are given advice about how to make allowances for the opposite sex. You see, people have been instilled with the idea that men and women are identical, and people think that others think along the same lines as themselves. But this just isn't true. Men have big advantages (spatial thinking, problem solving) and women have big advantages (communications, observation and intuition), simply due to the wiring of brains.
I highly recommend this book; it is so fun, and contains so many pearls of wisdom that ring true.
The corpus callosum, the bundle of nerves which connects the left and right sides of the brain, is thicker in women's brains, and handles perhaps 30% more inter-brain connections. In addition, some brain functions, like speech, are distributed between both sides of women's brains, but are isolated in one side of men's brains. As a result, a woman's brains handle speech better. Also, women can perform true multi-tasking and multi-tracking, while men find it difficult.
The book is illustrated with numerous cartoons. While many of the cartoons are exaggerated, each one points out a truism about differences between the way men and women think. Men's brains have evolved to help men with their main job; catch lunch. As a result, their think is more focused, and they have better spatial reasoning abilities. This is especially true when a man's system is flush with testosterone. On the other hand, women's brains have evolved to aid their main job; to be nurturing. They are much better at communicating, and are better at multi-tasking. Women are also better at multi-tracking; keeping track of conversations about multiple topics simultaneously.
One of the best aspects of this book, is that not only do the authors point out the differences between men and women, but a lot of very practical advice is given. Both men and women are given advice about how to make allowances for the opposite sex. You see, people have been instilled with the idea that men and women are identical, and people think that others think along the same lines as themselves. But this just isn't true. Men have big advantages (spatial thinking, problem solving) and women have big advantages (communications, observation and intuition), simply due to the wiring of brains.
I highly recommend this book; it is so fun, and contains so many pearls of wisdom that ring true.