What kind of brain does a woman have? Men claim that they have been trying to figure that out since the dawn of time. Women on the other hand, have been confused between what they know about their own brain and what others have decided a female brain really is. The “others” as you might have guessed are men.
Not that it’s all men, but history has had its share of notables who have defined the female brain. Aristotle, set the framework for describing men as being superior for their rational and logical intelligence. Women were the inferior “incomplete man.”
Aristotle’s based his premise on reproductive function where men were active and productive and women were receptive and passive. A child only inherited the male characteristics wherein women were the soil providers of substance. Aristotle was not completely blinded by his superiority. He did believe women should be educated, just not the kind of education suited to men. Unfortunately, his philosophy became an embedded thought about the abilities of women for far too long.
Today a female brain is an asset. One of the most interesting aspects of a female brain is the quality of empathy. While not all women are equally empathetic, the quality is found to emanate from the right brain hemisphere which most women are better able to utilize than men.
Daniel Pink, author of AWhole New Mind – why right-brainers will rule the future, considers empathy to be a valued asset. He avoids the right brain- left brain gender divide by describing it more as a shift to a conceptual way of thinking. It is the right brain hemisphere’s qualities of “inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning – [that] increasingly will determine who flourishes and who founders.”
What kind of brain does a woman have?
A woman has the ability to access the best of both brain hemispheres. She has the advantage of the nonlinear, intuitive, empathetic and holistic right brain hemisphere, and the experience gained from an educational system and a society that generally functions from a logical, sequential and analytical left brain hemisphere.
Here’s my female response to Aristotle – the famous Pegge Lee song I Am Woman.
by Joyce Hansen
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I am glad for the difference of men and women and many times I have put myself in harms way to protect a woman or in a couple instances a woman and her child.
It is also great to appreciate the empathy genuinely resident in women. But I will stand up here for men and call out from memory the passion that directed the men to pledge together “our lives, our fortunes, our Sacred Honor”. Let us not forget either men and women both who lay entombed almost one million strong in military cemeteries all around the world for their passion for freedom.
The wonderful balance that a woman sets against the calculations of a man are truly honorable and necessary to keep balance. Take heart, my empathetic compatriot, we are in this together.
I think creativity and inventiveness need to be dominant to help undo some of the errors and results of logical thinking! LOL
Thanks Joyce, I never knew there was so much to learn about the female brain!
Gwen
Sure is a good thing that there is a better understanding of brain function today than there was in the time of Aristotle!
Here’s to women and their brains! Peggy Lee had a handle on it!