The Sexual Paradox

Zusatztext "Fascinating! insightful and deeply captivating. Every thinking man and woman should read this book." Louann Brizendine! M.D.! author of The Female Brain "All these many years of running a business! I thought I was an anomaly. Susan Pinker's work has grounded my intuitions in reality: a woman's success is going to knock the spiritual stuffing right out of her if she tries to come at it from traditional angles. Instead she must invent a workplace that not only provides food for the table but gives social and emotional meaning to her life. Susan Pinker helps you understand that it's not you that's crazy! it's the system." Margot Franssen! social activist and co-founder of The Body Shop Canada "Pinker! a psychologist and columnist for the Globe & Mail! presents a compelling case for a biological explanation of why men and women make different career choices. She may draw a great deal of fire for this book! but her strong evidence could also open a better-informed discussion of the issues." Publishers Weekly Informationen zum Autor Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist and journalist who writes about interpersonal and ethical issues in the workplace in her Problem Solving column in the Globe and Mail . She has worked as a clinical psychologist for twenty-five years and has taught at the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She lives in Montreal with her husband and three children. Klappentext After four decades of eradicating gender barriers at work and in public life! why do men still dominate business! politics and the most highly paid jobs? Why do high-achieving women opt out of successful careers? Psychologist Susan Pinker explores the illuminating answers to these questions in her groundbreaking first book. In The Sexual Paradox ! Susan Pinker takes a hard look at how fundamental sex differences continue to play out in the workplace. By comparing the lives of fragile boys and promising girls! Pinker turns several assumptions upside down: that the sexes are biologically equivalent; that smarts are all it takes to succeed; that men and women have identical goals. If most children with problems are boys! then why do many of them as adults overcome early obstacles while rafts of competent! even gifted women choose jobs that pay less or decide to opt out at pivotal moments in their careers? Weaving interviews with men and women into the most recent discoveries in psychology! neuroscience and economics! Pinker walks the reader through these minefields: Are men the more fragile sex? Which sex is the happiest at work? What does neuroscience tell us about ambition? Why do some male school drop-outs earn more than the bright! motivated girls who sat beside them in third grade? Pinker argues that men and women are not clones! and that gender discrimination is just one part of the persistent gender gap. A work world that is satisfying to us all will recognize sex differences! not ignore them or insist that we all be the same. Introduction Female Puppets and Eunuchs Why ­­can't a woman be more like a man? The question seemed innocent enough in 1964. As sung by Henry Higgins, the lovesick Victorian professor in My Fair Lady , social class was changeablejust a matter of tweaking accent and costumebut the gender divide was completely inscrutable. Four decades later the question is still being asked, but with a different twist. Now it usually means ­ Shouldn't a woman be more like a man ? The frustration is still there, now torqued with unfulfilled expectations. 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 modelwith just a few optional features added on. We have come to expect that there should be no real differences between the...

Autorentext
Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist and journalist who writes about interpersonal and ethical issues in the workplace in her Problem Solving column in the Globe and Mail. She has worked as a clinical psychologist for twenty-five years and has taught at the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She lives in Montreal with her husband and three children.

Klappentext

After four decades of eradicating gender barriers at work and in public life, why do men still dominate business, politics and the most highly paid jobs? Why do high-achieving women opt out of successful careers? Psychologist Susan Pinker explores the illuminating answers to these questions in her groundbreaking first book.

In The Sexual Paradox, Susan Pinker takes a hard look at how fundamental sex differences continue to play out in the workplace. By comparing the lives of fragile boys and promising girls, Pinker turns several assumptions upside down: that the sexes are biologically equivalent; that smarts are all it takes to succeed; that men and women have identical goals.

If most children with problems are boys, then why do many of them as adults overcome early obstacles while rafts of competent, even gifted women choose jobs that pay less or decide to opt out at pivotal moments in their careers? Weaving interviews with men and women into the most recent discoveries in psychology, neuroscience and economics, Pinker walks the reader through these minefields: Are men the more fragile sex? Which sex is the happiest at work? What does neuroscience tell us about ambition? Why do some male school drop-outs earn more than the bright, motivated girls who sat beside them in third grade?

Pinker argues that men and women are not clones, and that gender discrimination is just one part of the persistent gender gap. A work world that is satisfying to us all will recognize sex differences, not ignore them or insist that we all be the same.

Leseprobe
Introduction
Female Puppets and Eunuchs

Why ­­can’t a woman be more like a man?

The question seemed innocent enough in 1964. 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. Four decades later the question is still being asked, but with a different twist. Now it usually means “­Shouldn’t a woman be more like a man?” The frustration is still there, now torqued with unfulfilled expectations.

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. We have come to expect that there should be no real differences between the sexes. But the science that’s emerging upends the notion that male and female are interchangeable, symmetrical, or the same. To put this book’s question plainly, with what we know about the psychology, neuroscience, and economics of people’s choices and behavior–fields that have exploded with amazing findings in the last ten years alone–how reasonable is it to expect that a woman be more like a man? And how likely is it for a man to be like a woman? This time, it’s more about describing what is, than why ­can’t, or ­shouldn’t, because the expectation that male is the starting point seems to have led us astray.

The assumption that female is just a slightly different shade of male was perfectly captured by the predicament the Sesame Street team found itself in when trying to invent a cast of characters for its popular preschool television show. In 2006 The New York Times reported how Sesame Street’s producers had long been stymied in creating a female lead puppet out of the anxiety that any girl-like features would play into stereotypes. “If Cookie Monster was a female character, she’d be accused of being anorexic or bulimic,” said the show&#821…