When a U.S. team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania broke the news that men and women’s brains were “hardwired differently,” I received a flood of congratulatory emails from family and friends who congratulated me with praise similar to that offered to a mother announcing the birth of a new child.
The most compelling was from a family member, a junior at Stanford, who was the first to send me the news link via text message.
Now vindicated by a team of scientists who did brain scans of over 1,000 men, women, boys and girls, I feel a bit like a trailblazer who now gets to move to the front of the parade.
This science-based validation of my work, and Daniel’s text message, gives me hope. Until now, he had never read my book. And over the past year, my public talks have attracted only a handful of people from academia and science including a former president of Babson College, who pronounced it “Terrific! Powerful!” and a medical doctor who proclaimed: “I have attended 100′s, if not 1,000′s of presentations, and this was one of the best!”
Now on the threshold of a new era, we are entering the DMZ, a safe zone between the Age of Competition and the Age of Collaboration, where men and women are discovering what I have been saying all along: My comments are based on 40-years worth of research across on a dozen fields of science, In my TED-style talks I use a “Chart of Opposites” to show that the hardwiring of men and women is both opposite AND complementary.
Now my job is simple. As an expert on the New Science of the female brain, I can include this new study to remind audiences that in the 21st Century, women just so happen to be hardwired with exactly the skills needed for today’s complex, interconnected, volatile world.
Ragini Verma, a researcher on the University of Pennsylvania team affirms: “While men are better at perception and coordinated actions, …women are better at intuitive thinking. Women are better at remembering things. When you talk, women are more emotionally involved, they will listen more.”
The skills of men and women complement each other. When women are fully at parity with men in the workplace and politics, will we suddenly discover that the rise of women into full equality with men is what the world has been waiting for?
Together, we can create a world that works for everyone. Do you agree?
Alexia Parks, named “one of 50 people who matter most on the Internet” by Newsweek, is an expert on the New Science of the woman’s brain. With a focus on the interface of science, consciousness, technology, and leadership. she uses 40-years of research across a dozen fields of science to empower women as leaders.
