The Female Brain (book)

I loved this book - finished it in an hour. At first I was put off by her approach, but then realized there was a meth od in the madness. Dr. Benzedrine is a rush!

The problem with this book is that Brizendine actively misrepresents research and uses numbers that are basically made-up. Her "science" doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

For instance, on differences between male and female speech patterns she claims that women speak three times more words than men in a day, and speak almost twice as fast. In fact, no reliable studies had been done when the book came out. Prompted by the book, somebody actually bothered to measure, and it turned out that men and women speak about the same number of words, and men speak (very slightly) faster. You can get details about the studies from the excellent blog LanguageLog, which reports on real linguistic science. Google for the post titled "Gabby guys: the effect size".

In sum: This book should be filed in the Fiction section, not the Science section.

Read as a man, the book basically tells you that, no matter what you believe or what women say about the qualities they are looking in a man, they are hard wired to choose the one with cash, a house in the Hamptons, and clothes from Bergdorf & Goodman. I knew that already. So: squander your money (if you have any) or stay single. Good luck.

Let me ask all the women readers a question?
If you had access to Aladdin's lamp, what would your three wishes be. Eternal youth? Money? Power? Think again, I agree with Louann Brizedendine, Author of "The Female Brain", that all of us really want:
More joy in our lives
A fulfilling relationship
And last but not the least, more personal time to grow.

Men often wonder what women want? The key to this secret is in understanding that women have a special gift. Not only we have an exquisitely configured prefrontal gyrus and hippocampus but our neurons are constantly being suffused by the Big E and the Big O. This potent synergy endows us with the magic of being smart AND nurturing. Our grandmothers and mothers ( successful home makers) have shown us by example that the "Hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." This adage is even more relevant today.

You might have heard the Dalai Lama's recent address that: HE WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE WOMEN WORLD LEADERS. (Are the men listening? Ready or not, here we come!)
In the 21st Century, for the first time, women are enjoying the luxury of pursuing intellectual and scientific pursuits. Today we have a better control of our hippocampus-triggered emotions, fertility and economic independence. Now is the time to logically eye-ball our responsibilities and appropriately utilize our social support system and technology to juggle the role of a model "care-giver" with any challenging profession. Remember, we lead with style and panache.

I read this as a layperson and came to the conclusion that it was a skewed collection of misinformation meant only to cushion between its pages the promotion of specific drugs. The only thought provoked by this book was, "How much did the drug companies pay her?" I keep or donate all of my books. Not this one--it went straight into the recycle bin.