The fundamental upstream question here is whether men and women should show the exact same patterns of ability and interest given their measurably different organs, hormones, chromosomes, lifespans, physiology, and so on. Much of the rest of the body differs systematically, visibly, and predictably between genders; it is unlikely a priori that the brain would remain invariant. Here's the late Doreen Kimura of McGill and Simon Fraser on the topic:
http://www2.nau.edu/~bio372-c/class/behavior/sexdif1.htm
Men and women display patterns of behavioral and cognitive
differences that reflect varying hormonal influences on
brain development
By Doreen Kimura (May 13, 2002)
Men and women differ not only in their physical attributes
and reproductive function but also in many other
characteristics, including the way they solve intellectual
problems. For the past few decades, it has been
ideologically fashionable to insist that these behavioral
differences are minimal and are the consequence of
variations in experience during development before and
after adolescence. Evidence accumulated more recently,
however, suggests that the effects of sex hormones on brain
organization occur so early in life that from the start the
environment is acting on differently wired brains in boys
and girls. Such effects make evaluating the role of
experience, independent of physiological predisposition, a
difficult if not dubious task. The biological bases of sex
differences in brain and behavior have become much better
known through increasing numbers of behavioral,
neurological and endocrinological studies.
Sex differences in problem solving have been systematically
studied in adults in laboratory situations. On average, men
perform better than women at certain spatial tasks. In
particular, men seem to have an advantage in tests that
require the subject to imagine rotating an object or
manipulating it in some other way. They also outperform
women in mathematical reasoning tests and in navigating
their way through a route. Further, men exhibit more
accuracy in tests of target-directed motor skills--that is,
in guiding or intercepting projectiles.
Women, on average, excel on tests that measure recall of
words and on tests that challenge the person to find words
that begin with a specific letter or fulfill some other
constraint. They also tend to be better than men at rapidly
identifying matching items and performing certain precision
manual tasks, such as placing pegs in designated holes on a
board.
A graphic accompanies the full article:
http://www2.nau.edu/~bio372-c/images/00018E9D-879D-1D06-8E49...
Here is Louann Brizendine of UCSF:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Female-Brain-Louann-Brizendine/dp/...
Review 1: Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist at the
University of California, San Francisco, explores
groundbreaking issues in brain science...Brizendine
graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine and
draws on research done at the Women's and Teen Girls' Mood
and Hormone Clinic, which she founded at UCSF in 1994.
Review 2 :This comprehensive new look at the hormonal
roller coaster that rules women's lives down to the
cellular level, "a user's guide to new research about the
female brain and the neurobehavioral systems that make us
women," offers a trove of information, as well as some
stunning insights. Though referenced like a work of
research, Brizedine's writing style is fully accessible.
Brizendine provides a fascinating look at the life cycle of
the female brain from birth ("baby girls will connect
emotionally in ways that baby boys don't") to birthing
("Motherhood changes you because it literally alters a
woman's brain-structurally, functionally, and in many ways,
irreversibly") to menopause (when "the female brain is
nowhere near ready to retire") and beyond.
There are tens of thousands of papers in this general area on Pubmed.
