This book will neither appeal to people who are upset about LGBTQA* and the “gender debate,” nor to those for whom biology is irrelevant. Emeritus neuroscientist Lutz Jäncke says both extreme positions are wrong.
He explains the differences between gender and gender, explains biological facts (and rare variants) and our complex psychology: In fact, as an analysis of 2,000 studies shows, the differences between the sexes in thinking and feeling, in mathematical and verbal skills, are virtually insignificant. What is remarkable is not so much the differences as the overlap in most of the properties. While in some animal species the sexes specialize in different tasks, humans can develop their skills much more flexibly. And that’s what they do, guided by cultural and social expectations.
Especially in wealthy Western countries, there is a social phenomenon that seems paradoxical at first glance: although equality has advanced, young women are more likely to turn to professions and courses of study with female connotations. In African cultures, however, the proportion of women in MINT subjects is significantly higher. The book is a readable, fact-rich contribution to this debate, with minor weaknesses in the summaries at the end of the chapters. Antonia Rötger
Lutz Jäncke
Man and woman – a discontinued model?
Hogrefe Verlag, 264 pages, € 28,–
ISBN 978-3-456-86410-5