Female and Male Eyes

Are men from Mars? Are women from Venus? The jury is still out on these questions. But many people feel that women perceive their environment in a different way to men. Is this really the case?

Experiences and Prejudices
Women, it is said, are more aware of their environment. They allegedly can endure pain better than men, but are more sensitive to noise. Their spatial imagination is said to be not as well developed. Is this all a product of the imagination?

Adapted Senses
Actually, little is known about gender differences in perception, but there is probably more truth to it than we think. Many a young parent is familiar with the following situation : in the middle of the night, a newborn baby wakes up and begins crying terribly. While the mother wakes up immediately, the oblivious father snores happily on. The reason for this difference in reaction is apparently due to differences in the brain's structure. Neuropsyhologists have learned that the baby's cries activate only one particular part of the father's cerebral cortex. The mother, on the other hand, has two centers. With women, there appears to be a sort of inner alarm clock built into this section of the brain.

Peculiar Features
Make and female brains show a number of differences. Among women, the thinking organ is about 15% lighter than it is for me. But this should not lead to us to any hasty conclusions -- it is most definitely not the weight of the brain that is responsible for intelligence. If that were the case, elephants would be far superior than humans! In women, the section of the brain which unites the right and the left hemispheres is larger. Many other parts of the brain differ in structure between sexes -- for example, the centres for sexual behaviour, hunger and thirst.

More Surprise
The human brain needs several years to mature completely. Childhood is a crucial time, for the experiences that a child goes through during this maturing process create countless connections of nerve cells which make each brain unique. These connections define the differences between the sexes, but also the individual qualities of each person.

Because boys and girls are frequently brought up in very different ways, this may be resposible for the creation of gender differences in perception. These differences probably increase over the course of their lives. It may, however, be quite some time before researchers are able to prove this.