By: Dr. Greg Bottaro

Some statistical facts about women-  They live longer.  As of 10 years ago, only 7% of the entire prison population in the US was female. There is a significantly higher rate of Antisocial Personality Disorder among men as compared to women. Another interesting fact? The Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC), which is the area of the brain where anger and aggression are controlled, is larger in women than in men. A larger PFC is also correlated with higher rates of conscientiousness, better decision-making, and greater overall impulse control. Research also shows that women are better at keeping strong negative emotions in check. When a woman does act on her negative emotions, she will more often attack verbally rather than physically.

A longitudinal study began in the 1920’s by a researcher named Lewis Terman. The study began on 1,548 gifted children and the research has followed these same children long into their adult lives. Although Terman died in 1956, his work was carried on by his students, and then his students’ students, and the study is still being conducted today.  Researchers are using the data to try to answer questions about the factors that contribute to a person’s success, health, and longevity.

Almost one hundred years after the study first began, researchers have concluded that the number one predictor of longevity is what they termed, conscientiousness. Conscientiousness involves using forethought, planning, and perseverance in many aspects of life — all functions of the Pre-Frontal Cortex. It just might be that a larger Pre-Frontal Cortex can contribute to living a longer and healthier life because conscientiousness enlists self-control to make better life choices.

Conscientious people are less likely to smoke, drink heavily, abuse drugs, or engage in life threatening or risky behaviors. No wonder they live longer! These are the people that come to a complete stop at stop signs, follow doctor’s orders, and pay all their taxes. Again, these are all functions of the PFC, which is larger in women. Self-control and conscientiousness make up this week’s strength, and they bring us to the last in this series on female brain strengths, which we will cover next week: just a little bit of healthy worry.

In relation to this series of articles, some readers have responded that it seems like I am saying women are “better” than men.  I want to clarify for those readers who misunderstand the point of this series. I am pointing out here statistically measured correlations and differences between men’s brains and women’s brains. At some points I might add in my own commentary, or make connections to Catholic thinking, but none of this commentary equals misandry. Some of the differences in brain structures correlate with certain behaviors that can be viewed as strengths. However, a man can perform any one of these functions that, based on brain structure, are more naturally performed by a woman. The difference is that a man might need more motivation, might use different parts of the brain, and might need more practice. If I said that a weight is curled by use of the bicep, and the bigger the bicep, the heavier the weight that can be lifted, it would not be sexist, discriminatory, or inconsequential to say, “Men, on average, have larger biceps and can therefore have the capability to curl heavier weights.” There are women who can curl the same weight, though it would probably take them longer to build the same amount of muscle (since men have more testosterone, which builds muscle) to curl the same weight. Also, some women might be able to lift the same weight if they use two hands. The final action might be the same — curling the weight — but they have arrived at it differently.  Analogously, men as people can also display the same strengths covered in these articles, but they might take longer, need more motivation, or arrive at the final action differently than how a woman does.  There are also strengths that the male brain has over the female brain.  Some of them are implicit in what we are covering in this series, since something might be a strength or weakness relative to the context.  Some of men’s strengths are separate and I will elaborate on them in the future.

“Correlation does not equal causation” is a very important distinction when we apply these brain differences to virtue. There might be some objection based on a concern that I am saying women are more virtuous than men. Let me be clear: these brain differences do not create virtue. Virtue is a description of action — which is a complex collaboration of many different systems, including, but not limited to, brain anatomy. A person may very well act virtuously but in opposition to their brain anatomy. A teenage boy with raging testosterone certainly must act against his brain anatomy at times if he is to act virtuously.

The overall take home point  is  that men and women are very different, though complementary.

Credit to Dr. Greg Bottaro of CatholicExchange.

By: Dr. Greg Bottaro

On the train this morning on the way into the office there was  a female conductor.   I’ve traveled with a female conductor on a train once before, and both times ended the same way.   On the intercom as we reached our destination, the conductor concluded her comments with, “have a great day everyone, and thank you crew for your work.”   The only two times the conductor thanked the crew in the past two months were the two times the conductor was female — and they were different females.

This week’s female superpower follows from empathy, which  we covered last week.   What we are talking about this week is  collaboration, which is a natural consequence of understanding and feeling the feelings of other people.

A 2011  Harvard Business Review  article reported a study that tested the intelligence of groups working together in areas of brainstorming, decision making, and problem solving.   Individual IQ scores were also tested, but as it turned out, they did not have an effect on the overall ratings of the groups’ intelligence.   Even though a person might have had a higher IQ, his or her ultimate performance on the group assessment depended on if there were more men or women in the group.   The more women in the group, the higher the group’s score.

Cohen, cited in the last article, theorized that men and women work differently in groups.   Men search for underlying rules that govern how a system behaves, and then try to predict certain outcomes.   Women, using their strength of empathy, attempt to identify what others are thinking and feeling, and therefore respond appropriately.   They are more concerned with the emotional cohesion in the group and therefore pick up on more information contained in the other members of the group.   Men are prone to be less aware of the others in the group as they are more focused on the problem solving aspect.

This distinction is not to say that men don’t care about the feelings of others.    Women simply have more brainpower devoted to perceiving what others are thinking and feeling.   Therefore, they have more brainpower available to accommodate the needs of members in a group.   This greater capacity can lead to greater group cohesion, helping a group to reach its goals more efficiently.

Sociologists have known this for years, long before it was possible to look into the brain.   Behavioral differences have long been studied between men and women, boys and girls.   Cross cultural studies have shown that around the world, little boys tend to try to figure out how things work and little girls tend to want togetherness.   When given toy blocks, little boys will competitively try to build the tallest or longest construction, while little girls will make circles in which all can play together.   All of this points to the idea that women can make better leaders in many situations, and are certainly always a significantly important part of any team.

I want to step aside from the science for a moment to respond to some of the criticism  to this series thus far.   Some people feel that these differences are arbitrary and unimportant, or merely conjecture.   While much of feminism strives to prove that women can be just as good as men, we need an entirely different appreciation for women as  women.    It’s become very unpopular to speak about gender differences.   I don’t think diversity means that everyone should be viewed the same.   Same respect? Yes.   The human person deserves the highest respect possible, but not because we are all the same.   If society was, and is in many ways, a male dominated system, I think it is a very weak argument for women to say, “we can do just as good as men can.” Male domination has convinced society that the part women play is not as important as man’s.  First of all domination is not something to strive for, and second of all women contribute something entirely different than men to every aspect of life.   This includes marriage, family and the home, the neighborhood, business and the economy, government, and the society in general. From philosophy to art to science and everything in between, women have something unique and important to contribute, precisely because they are women and not men.

Pope Francis recently spoke about our lack of appreciation of women.   He said, “The role of women doesn’t end just with being a mother and with housework  … we don’t yet have a truly deep theology of women in the church. We talk about whether they can do this or that, can they be altar boys, can they be lectors, about a woman as president of [an organization], but we don’t have a deep theology of women in the church.”   Even in the Church’s theology, according to Pope Francis, we need to move away from a “woman can do what a man can do” mentality to explore what makes a woman unique and important and beautiful for being a woman and  not  a man.

As long as the feminist argument is reduced to “we are just as good as men are,” feminism is losing.   In order to make the real argument for real feminism — an argument that shouldn’t have to be made in the first place — we need to understand precisely how men and women are different.   In our diversity we have complementarity, and complementarity necessitates mutual respect and admiration between the sexes.

This specific trait of empathy-based collaboration  is an excellent example of something that women are typically better equipped for than men, and a very compelling reason to afford equal treatment, equal respect, and equal opportunity in the workplace.   Maybe even preferential treatment when team cohesion and collaboration is at stake.  And as far as train conductors, women make for a much more enjoyable trip.

Credit to Dr. Greg Bottaro of CatholicExchange.