TOK Presentation – Male and female ways of thinking
Question: Do men and women think in the same ways and should this affect their lives and careers?
It has long been thought that men and women have fundamental difference in the way they think, but this was always considered to be down to the hormones. Recently it has been discovered that although the hormones do play a role in the behaviour and views of the different sexes, the brain also plays a key role. It has been found that there are many ways which the male brain varies from the female brain. This challenges the equal rights and opportunities have long been struggled for.
In the various studies that have been performed, many conclusions have been drawn. Some have been suspected for some time. These include the fact that men’s brains are about 10% larger than women’s. This doesn’t seem to matter much, as men’s bodies are on average 8% larger than women’s, but there is still a small size difference. However, the major findings are in the purpose rather than the size. One of these results is that women have many of the segments of their brains connected together, while men’s are separated. This allows women to multi-task, while men have much more specialized thinking. It is thought this is why women tend to see things from various angles and men are more straightforward. It is also thought that this is the reason behind the higher numbers of ADHD, autism and dyslexia in men and also why women can recover quicker after strokes, as their activity can be transferred to other parts of the brain. However this separation allows men to focus their attentions and not get distracted by emotions, as women typically do. This is because women have to use several parts of the brain to process a single thought.
