'If men are from Mars, so are women'

Interesting article by Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian yesterday, about the conflicting voices in the debate about sex differences. On one side are academics such as Simon Baron Cohen (whose boook The Essential Difference we reviewed here) who say there are innate differences between men and women, which are hard-wired into our brains. On the other are academics like Deborah Cameron (whose book The Myth of Mars and Venus we reviewed here) who argue that scientific evidence for innate differences is weak and there are far more prosaic factors at play. Bunting says, 'the debate about the differences between men and women will never reach a settled conclusion. We keep on looking for differences because that is one of the basic ways we order our experience of the world. That doesn't mean change isn't possible, just that the argument will carry on getting sidetracked to focus on tiny differences rather than the much greater similarities.'