Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leonard Sax Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences
Book Review: Some Things To Watch Out For
Summary: 2 Stars
Leonard Sax's new book has a lot of good science referenced in the early chapters, and he makes the case for hardwired gender differences between boys and girls--the same case that has been made by other authors over the past decade, including Michael Gurian in his books about boys and girls and learning, Steve Biddolph in his book on boys, and others. There are, however, some statements and positions in the book that troubled me. At the end of his chapter focused on sex, Sax says that we just really need to do a better job of teaching girls to say no. That's an archaic attitude and a case of blaming the victim. Looking at his own research he should be more focused on helping boys develop good moral character, along with helping girls learn to be more assertive in their relationships with boys. Sax also seems to be very OK with corporal punishment, claiming that research has never proven a link between violence done to children and their later violent or criminal behavior. I would like to see that research, because after working for a decade in juvenile and adult corrections, I would respectfully disagree. I also would challenge Sax to look carefully at the work of the Nurturing Program and their research that works hard to remove violence as a parental strategy. I got a real sense that Dr. Sax is pretty judgmental of parents in general--he points a lot of fingers at parents in his book, blaming them for problems their children are having. Parents may well have to assume a lot of responsibility for how their children turn out, but I don't think you convince people that you are on their team and want to help them do better by telling them what a poor job they've done. I agree with Sax that parents should worry more about being parents and less about being their children's friends--but I think being too harsh is a slippery slope. The biography info on Dr. Sax doesn't mention his family at all--I wonder how much direct experience he has at parenting? It usually tends to temper one's judgmental tendencies.