“Men are from Mars” myth is finally laid to rest

I was so pleased to see the newspapers widely reporting new research which shows there are no material differences between men’s and women’s brains.

I have been critical in the past over the endless regurgitation of this Men are from Mars  myth which seeks to explain  familiar generalised differences between men and women.  I write about it in the chapter on management style in my book, Women’s Work, Men’s Cultures.

It is a lazy way of thinking and popular because it implies there is nothing to change and the status quo i.e. women’s marginalisation in all positions of power is in some way to be expected. This is so much more palatable than addressing the thornier issues of domination and discrimination of women by men over centuries… no wonder firms have signed up to the ‘let’s recognise differences and value them’ style of gender training.

This plus the other favourite of rooting out ‘unconconcious bias’ combine to disguise and hide the ongoing ‘second sexing’ of women in most areas of the workforce today. Let’s start looking at how cultures are created in the interests of the dominant group which will use their resources to keep it that way and challenge and change those  instead.