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MALES & FEMALES : 'EQUAL BUT DIFFERENT' by Laurie Robinson.

In 1970, I was a young, strictly working class lad reading engineering at university. It was a time of social unrest and political upheaval. Much of this was fuelled by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the protests against the war in Vietnam and the 'three day week'. It all seems a long time ago now. However, the experiences I went through, the ideas that I discovered and the people that I met changed my outlook upon life in a fundamental way. In no particular order I discovered politics, dissent, protest, real ale, 'pot', women, and feminism.

In an instinctive way I have never been able to understand how it is that some men appear to have a fundamental problem accepting that women are their equals. My discovery of feminism provided the intellectual, social, economic and political analysis that demonstrated beyond all doubt the folly of inequality, discrimination and inequity based upon gender.

In addition to being confirmed in my belief that men and women were equal, I also became persuaded that, apart from the obvious reproductive differences, men and women were essentially the same. To be more accurate I was satisfied that if the social, economic and political influences upon their upbringing could be made the same, men and women would be the same. In the debate around 'nature' versus 'nurture', I was totally persuaded by the argument that 'nurture' was the dominant force and that 'nature' was an irrelevance.

This conviction has lasted throughout my adult life and, unfortunately, as I have discovered in the last few years, it is completely wrong! I now wonder how it was that I could have been so fundamentally wrong, for so long and I am only slightly comforted by the thought that I have not been alone in my incorrectness! It turns out that whilst men and women may be 'equal', they are 'different' in important and surprising ways. Our collective misunderstanding of the fundamental 'different ness' of male and female 'nature', means that individuals and organisations are failing to harness and utilise the powerful diversity and potential that is represented by people.

A key difference between men and women is in relation to their brains. At this point it is important to make clear that in what follows I shall be using the word 'difference' to mean 'not the same'. I shall not be using it, on either side of the gender divide, as sexist code for either 'superiority', or 'inferiority'!

It is also important to state that whilst there are clear and significant differences between the 'average' male brain and the 'average' female brain, there are also lesser variations within each gender. Not everything is different in the brains of the two sexes. As with the rest of the human body most things are identical but the differences are both significant and important. In fact about 85% of men have male engineered brains and 90% of women have female engineered brains. In the last 10 years or so, the differences in the engineering of the 'average' male brain and the 'average' female brain have been scientifically confirmed by techniques such as 'positron emission tomography' and 'magnetic resonance imaging'.

Finally it is important to state that the differences that have been identified are in relation to the average 'brains' of the two genders and that this is not the same thing as attributing the differences to the 'minds' of the average man and woman. So what are some of these key differences?

· The average woman has a wider and thicker 'corpus callosum' This is the bridge between the two halves of the brain. The greater number of fibres connecting the two hemispheres means that there is more communication between the two halves of the average female brain than the two halves of the average male brain. The wider and thicker 'corpus callosum' means that females can keep both sides of the brain open, even when concentrating.

Brain-image studies show that men close down the left side of the brain when considering concepts, mathematical models and difficult problems. This key difference helps to explain why the average woman finds 'muti-tasking' easier than the average man and why men tend to like to concentrate upon one task at a time. The tendency of men to concentrate, sequence and categorise things may also help to explain why all the stamp collectors and train spotters are men and why seemingly some men are only able to appreciate cricket, by keeping a detailed score book! However this and other 'hard wiring' differences also means that the average man has greater spatial awareness, a better sense of direction and better hand eye co-ordination than the average woman. Thus men find parallel parking and reading maps upside down easier than women! This is not to suggest that women can't learn to parallel park, or read a map, but it is to suggest that the average man will find the techniques easier to learn.

· The average woman has more 'rods' in her brain, which means she can see better in the dark, especially at the red end of the spectrum. The average man has more 'cones' in his brain, which means that he can see better in daylight. A study by Reading University for the Automobile Association confirms that men have a disproportionate number of road accidents during the hours of darkness! Another result of this is that the visual ability of the average man is like a spotlight and is much more focussed than the average woman's. Men tend to focus on images in both the literal and the conceptual distance with a view like a telephoto lens. Women tend to focus upon the nearby with a view like a wide-angled lens. These differences help to explain why men can never find their socks, or their car keys and why they open a fridge door and at the same time ask 'Have we got any milk'?

· The 'hypothalmic nucleus' in the average male brain is two-and-a-half times larger than the average female brain. Accordingly the average male brain is more sensitive to the hormone 'androgen' and this results in the average male being more aggressive and assertive than the average female. Accordingly men tend to take greater risks. This is supported by the road accident statistics. These show that men have a disproportionate number of accidents caused by cornering errors, speed and over-taking. Throughout life men are more likely to die in a violent accident than women and in some countries, by the age of 30, men are 15 times more likely to have died in a violent accident, than a women!

· With age, the average man loses more brain tissue than the average woman. In addition the average man begins to lose brain tissue earlier than the average woman. Men are particularly prone to tissue loss in the 'frontal and temporal lobes' and this results in irritability and personality changes. It would seem that as they age, Victor Meldrew is a natural role model for most men! Women are particularly prone to lose tissue from the 'hippocampus and parietal' areas resulting in difficulties in remembering things and finding their way about.

The above seeks to illustrate that the 'structural', 'chemical' and 'operational' differences between the average female brain and the average male brain means that men and women have 'naturally' different strengths :-

FEMALE: Intuitive orientation, Parallel processing, Metaphor and simile, Timeless orientation

MALE: Logical orientation, Sequential processing, Literal categorising, Time orientation

These 'naturally' different, genetic gifts brought to situations by the average man and the average woman also implies that they have a 'natural' orientation towards different skills sets and talents :- Female Male Relationship orientation Action orientation Dialogue Competitiveness Listening Visioning Coaching Inventiveness Appreciation of paradox Risk taking Interpersonal connections Task orientation Social awareness Status quo challenge Group working Desire to be the best Multi-tasking Single task focus Appreciation of distinction Appreciation of structure and form There is much more that could be said and should be said, but the purpose of this article is to provide a 'taster' for the facts that need to be understood and to promote a discussion of the implications for us all.