Why Gender Matters, by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D., shows how different boys and girls are. It is not a matter of one sex being better than another. Rather, Sax describes how girls and boys can learn the same things, but in different ways. Why Gender Matters is primarily aimed towards parents. Sax, a pediatrician, shows how baby girls and boys are different, even from birth.
Physical Differences Among the Sexes
For example, girls are born with, and continue having, a better sense of hearing than boys. A male, speaking at a normal volume in his mind, might sound like he is shouting to a girl. Conversely, a woman, speaking at a normal volume in her mind, might not be loud enough to get a boy's attention.
Sax provides ways in which girls and boys need to be disciplined, taught, and spoken to differently. Parents will learn how methods of punishment work and don't work on the different sexes. Sax backs up his claims with research into physical parts of the brain, as well as personal anecdotes from his years of practicing pediatrics near Washington, D.C. He describes how parenting and education has changed over time, so that children only seem to be having more problems now. Nothing has changed with the children, he argues, it's how society expects them to be.
American Educational System Partly to Blame
While the book might be helpful to parents raising young children, it is also somewhat discouraging in its assessment of the United States' educational system. Sax shows how public school, especially kindergarten, is becoming more and more slanted in favor of girls. Boys having trouble in school are often assumed to have behavioral disorders, when in fact they just are not motivated by the current system. Also, since most kindergarten and lower grade teachers are women, they might have trouble understanding why boys are having trouble while the girls in the class are flourishing.
Single-Sex Education
Sax is an outspoken advocate of single-sex education, and certainly proves his point in Why Gender Matters. However, the book will leave many parents feeling helpless since they can't change the public educational system. Sax gives many examples of how single-sex private schools can overcome some of the obstacles he sets forth in this book. Parents should definitely read this book to get a better understanding of why raising girls is completely different than raising boys, and what they can do to give their sons and daughters the best start in life.
Dr. Sax is also the author of Boys Adrift, which shows 5 reasons why boys are having trouble reaching their potential.
Why Gender Matters was published by Broadway on February 14, 2006. Its ISBN is 0767916255 and its ISBN-13 is 978-0767916257.
Allison Russo - Allison Russo holds a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Most recently she ...
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