Like Higgins, most of us don’t realize that we think of male as the standard, and of female as a version of this base model-with just a few optional features added on. Now it usually means 'S houldn’ta woman be more like a man?' The frustration is still there, now torqued with unfulfilled expectations. Four decades later the question is still being asked, but with a different twist. As sung by Henry Higgins, the lovesick Victorian professor in My Fair Lady, social class was changeable-just a matter of tweaking accent and costume-but the gender divide was completely inscrutable. The question seemed innocent enough in 1964. No One Ever Asked Me If I Wanted to Be the Daddyīibliography Introduction Female Puppets and Eunuchs Read moreĪbandon Ship! Successful Women Who Opt Out of Science and Engineering Careers Through the stories of real men and women, science, and examples from popular culture, Susan Pinker takes a new look at the differences between women and men. In lively prose, Pinker guides readers through the latest findings in neuroscience and economics while addressing these questions: Are males the more fragile sex? What do men with Asperger syndrome or dyslexia tell us about more average men? Which sex is the happiest at work? Why do some male college dropouts earn more than the bright girls who sat beside them in third grade? After three decades of women's educational coups, why do men outnumber women in corporate law, engineering, physical science, and politics? The answers to these questions are the opposite of what we expect.Ī provocative examination of how and why learning and behavioral gaps in the nursery are reversed in the boardroom, this illuminating book reveals how sex differences influence career choices and ambition. By comparing fragile boys who succeed later with high-achieving women who opt out or plateau in their careers, Pinker turns several assumptions upside down: that women and men are biologically equivalent, that intelligence is all it takes to succeed, and that women are just versions of men, with identical interests and goals. Pinker examines how fundamental sex differences play out over the life span.

Susan Pinker, psychologist and award-winning columnist, has written a groundbreaking and controversial book that reveals why learning and behavioral gaps between boys and girls in the classroom are reversed in the workplace.

The Sexual Paradox by Susan Pinker