About the female brain

Speaking as a woman and living in a household surrounded by a surplus of testosterone I can attest to the vast differences of the brain structure and thought processes of the male and female species.  I read a fabulous book a few years ago by Louann Brizendine, M. D. called, “The Female Brain”.  She has also recently published a book called “The Male Brain” which I will pass on my findings when I finish it.  The following paragraphs will share a few of the things that I have learned thus far from her.

The male and female brains have perceptive differences that are complex and widespread.  For example, in the brain centers for language and hearing, women have an advantage of 11% capacity of more neurons than men.  The hippocampus which is the principal hub of memory formation and emotion is also larger in the female brain.  This could point to why women generally express themselves emotionally more readily than men.  It could also explain why women remember an emotionally charged event more clearly than most men.  I know for a fact that my husband and I do not remember the same details from a heated debate of any caliber.  I believe that my emotional recall is far more accurate.

Now take that same brain space in a man.  A man’s brain has two and a half times the space devoted to sexual drive and larger brain centers for action and aggression.  It is not news that a man thinks about sex every 52 seconds during the day and a woman may usually think about sex only once per day.  Why is that?

These basic structural variances could explain perceptive differences.  A man can see a couple talking and imagine it leading to a sexual encounter and a woman sees the same two people talking as just two people talking.

The home of the “fight or flight” center of the brain is the amygdala and the male brain just happens to have a larger processor for these emotions.  Men can be more confrontational while women will tend to lean towards being the peace-makers.  Being a woman I can attest that the stress of conflict will register more deeply in my brain than in my husband’s brain.  It also has a tendency to settle in many areas of my body (which is a whole different category – which I would also like to share with you.  It is called EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique).

Even though we as humans have evolved beautifully over that last several millenia, we are still built to live in the wild.  Our fore-mothers have passed on our deeply wired instincts of being able to respond to stress in the wild, while reacting to physical dangers and life-threatening situations while protecting not only ourselves by our young.  Now place that anciently wired brain in a modern day woman who has to juggle running a household, holding down a job (or even two), caring for the children, and add that many women do not receive the emotional support that they need to cope with all of it.  Something as mundane as cooking dinner or paying the bills can be perceived as life-threatening bringing the woman to tears or worse. No wonder many women are just not “in the mood” after a day of “fight or flight” – - or as I have said in the past, “hunt and gather”.

Women are born with powerful and unique mental aptitudes.  We possess superior verbal agility and we are usually able to connect on a deeper level of friendship than most men.  Scientifically we are almost psychic about being able to hear someone’s tone of voice and read their face and be undeniably accurate.  It isn’t called Woman’s Intuition for naught.  Top that off with the admirable ability to be the Peace Maker.  I am proud to be a member of this gender.

Men have many unique and wonderful attributes as well, but they will be discussed in the future.    I am sure my husband will have a few things to say about that topic!

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