We touched on this topic before in our post, “Are Female and Male Brains Really Different” but here is a different perspective on this often debated topic.

In Elizabeth Payne’s Ottawa Citizen article, “Men and women are from the same planet, actually,” she reports on Lise Eliot’s Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps - and What We Can Do About It.

Payne’s article states, “In her book, the Harvard-trained neuroscientist who teaches at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, shatters myths about gender differences. Yes, boys' and girls' brains are different, she writes, but not as different as the gender gap would suggest. Hard-wiring alone is not responsible for the gender divide, which means nurture, not nature -- including parents', educators' and society's expectations -- is a major factor in the differences between boys and girls and men and women.

Eliot makes a plea for parents and others to recognize the subtle ways in which society helps exaggerate differences in boys and girls and how that does them a disservice. "The earlier we can step in and tweak kids' growing neurons and synapses, the better our chances of raising both boys and girls with well-balanced sets of skills."

Everyone needs to take responsibility for gender stereotyping and identify it when we see it in our schools, children’s activities, etc. and make sure we are not perpetuating the myths about gender differences in our own interactions with children.

Where do you see gender stereotyping? What do you think can be done to debunk the myths around gender differences? Leave a comment and give your perspective on this highly debated topic.