Hromones, Genes and the Corner Office

Dear Broads,

There is a new book out by Susan Pinker called The Sexual Paradox that was reveiwed in The New York Times Book Review on Sunday, March 9. She looks at why girls excel in the classroom, only to fall behind in the workplace: "If you were to predict the future on the basis of school achievement alone," Pinker writes, "the world would be a matriarchy." The reviewer, Emily Bazelon, continues: "Once they move from school to work, men on average earn more money and run more shows. They particularly dominate in national government, the corporate boardroom and the science laboratory."

Pinker parks herself firmly among "difference" feminists. Women's brains aren't inferior, she argues, but they vary considerably from men's and this is the primary explanation for the workplace gender divide. Women care more about intrinsic rewards, they have broader interests, they are more service-oriented and they are better at gauging the effects they have on others. We are "wired for empathy."