Book Review: Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax

A few months ago, I read a great book by a man named Leonard Sax called 'Why Gender Matters.' He is a psychologist and family physician and his book dramatically alters the nature vs. nurture debate. Reading this helped me to think through several things concerning the education of my own children and I think that this would be extremely helpful for public school teachers as well. However, it could cause some frustration for them because of their lack of control within the system. For example, he is a huge proponent of same gender education. There is a plethora of evidence in this book that both boys and girls fare much better when they are not in mixed gender classrooms. The benefits are not only educational but social and developmental as well. This is certainly not something a single teacher can change and provide for his/her students. Thus, the possibility of frustration.


The book begins with a detailed description of the differences in the brains of boys and girls. He explains how they process information completely differently, hear sounds differently and ultimately learn in different ways. For example, he describes how from birth girls hear better than boys. Thus, most boys speak louder than girls. He says a male teacher should lower his voice by about half when speaking to girls or the girls believe they are being yelled at. He says a female teacher should put all her boys in the front of the room and all the girls at the back (an unnatural placement if they are allowed to decide their own seating). Otherwise the boys are not hearing her feminine voice and are 'checking out'. He speaks much of the ADD/ADHD epedimic in our country and believes that the overmedication of children (especially boys) is due in large part to a misunderstaning in the differences between the genders.

He addresses risk taking, stress and aggression and how that relates to education. Males respond better to stress. In fact it often helps them increase their performance. The opposite is true for most females. Stress inhibits the performance of girls. As an example he cites how boys can learn well when oral quizzes are more like contests or when they are strictly timed. Girls do much better without those kinds of things. In response to a study supporting this assertion, Sax says:"Reports like these prove that there are innate differences in how females and males respond to stress. I still hear educators insist that if we just raised girls to play with trucks and boys to play with dolls, then most differences in how boys and girls learn would just go away...And if female laboratory animals learn differently than male laboratory animals do, isn't it reasonable to look for sex differences in how human children learn?"

I love it when secular research supports a Biblical worldview! This book does this on many different accounts. God's Word makes it clear that He created man and woman differently and that men and women have different purposes and roles. We were created differently and when we come together in marriage we become 'one' as we complete one another. The created differences in men and women make this possible. I have always thought gender-neutral parenting and education were ridiculous, and this work gives credence to that view.Sax also gives very specific examples showing how the brains of boys and girls work differently while learning math and literature. He shows how boys could learn about transcendental numbers (such as fie) and the Fibonacci series. The method for teaching this to girls is quite different. Boys, when doing math, use their hippocampus which has no connection to the cerebral cortex (which we use for language and understanding.) Thus, they can enjoy math for its own sake much sooner than girls typically can. Girls usually need a connection to the real world to understand the same kind of concepts because they process math in the cerebral cortex.

He also talks extensively about literature and gender differences. This section was especially appealing to me. I desperately want all of my children to love the written word. I think early experiences can shape forever the way that children view books. Sax seems to have this same opinion as he laments the failings in education for both boys and girls. First of all, he notes, boys and girls like to read different things. This should be obvious, but in public education the choices that girls prefer are also the choices that teachers often assign. Most girls prefer fiction; boys prefer nonfiction. Girls prefer to read about the experiences and emotions of the characters while boys prefer action-battles, adventures and explanations of how things work. Research shows that 80% of the books for young readers fall into the 'girls fiction' category.

The teaching of literature is also extremely important. He gave the example of the reading of the "Lord of the Flies." He notes that the most common question is something like "How would you feel if you were Piggy?" This works well for girls because they love to delve into the lives of characters. This type of role playing exercise is asking the student to use two distinct parts of their brain simultaneously: emotional information in the amygdala with language information in the cerebral cortex. This is not natural for most boys. Typically boys talk less when they experience intense emotions. An effective way to get boys to dig into "Lord of the Flies" is to have them construct a detailed map of the island as they read. It is harder than it sounds! The book must be read with great care to construct an accurate map and attention must be given to details such as the setting of the sun and shadows being cast in the palm trees. The boys who were given this assignment brought in their individual relief maps constructed of paper mache or cardboard and then had to hammer out any differences they found between the maps by consulting the text again. They were carefully deconstructing a text and searching out clues hidden hundreds of pages apart.

Sax also notes that using newspapers greatly enhances the learning in classrooms since boys prefer non fiction. However, he says, there is much great literature that boys can really enjoy but it is often not the kind that is assigned anymore. Boys prefer fiction with strong male characters who do unpredictable things. Books in which male characters are helpless or weak turn boys off to reading. Critics may claim that this type of thing reinforces gender stereotypes. Sax says:"...the most pernicious gender stereotype is the one that says boys don't like to read. Let's break down that stereotype first. Get every child excited about learning. Once kids have discovered for themselves that reading can be fun and exciting, then you can worry about broadening their taste in literature. Right now I am seeing many boys who have never had the experience, not even once, of reading a book that really excited them. They've never read a book that punched them in the gut. They've never cried while reading a book. They have no clue how powerful books can be."

Then he delivers one of my favorite lines:"The first priority of schools must be education. Social engineering comes second."

I whole heartedly agree with the first sentence and the second makes me shudder. No doubt social engineering is definitely still on the agenda.

I will end this now, but there is so much more he addresses including sex (which will absolutely blow your mind), drug use, peer pressure, bullying, discipline, parenting, etc. There are several places I disagree with him including his chapter on gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers. However, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Parents, home educators, public educators, grandparents, etc. I am looking forward to finding his follow up books which specifically address the issues facing our boys ("Boys Adrift") and our girls ("Girls on the Edge")