This Just In: Women Communicate Better Than Men

My wife picked up the recently-published book The Female Brain (Morgan Road Books) by author Louann Brizendine. Published in late-summer 2006, the book burned its way to the top of the best-seller lists and has recently debuted in Europe where it is expected to do the same.

The Female Brain takes a fresh spin on a familiar topic: that women are better communicators than men and more specifically, the brain circuitry and hormones that make women so much more attuned -- and some would say beholden to -- the emotions of others are very real. So say the recent findings of a study conducted by Louann Brizendine -- noted feminist from the early 1970' -- and now a recognized neuro-pyschiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco. As far as brains are concerned, I'm equal opportunity. You want to tell me women communicate better -- I have no problem with that. Just allow me to revel in the fact that my DNA allows me to hunt a wholly mammoth better than my female counterparts.

As far as I'm concerned it's never been a matter of dispute: women communicate better than men and are probably smarter than men as well. According to Brizendine's research, women can process about 20,000 words a day compared to 7,000 a day for men (although Brizendine herself says that this quote was taken out of context. The real phraseology of that should have been that "...a woman has many more communication events a day -- gestures, words, raising of your eyebrows, that sort of thing).

Apparently, the male inability to express himself starts at the fetal-stage, where studies have shown that initially, the fetus is gender-neutral, but then transforms after an influx of testosterone which is what makes men what they are -- or aren't -- depending on your point of view. According to Brizendine, all brains start out with female-type brain circuits until eight weeks of fetal life, when the tiny testicles start to pump out adult-male levels of testosterone that travel in the bloodstream up to the brain. All of the basic sex-specific circuitry is grown in the male brain before birth, because that's when the entire road map is laid down.

I'm glad to know that a sexual road-map has been implanted in my brain long before I knew what an erection was. Sounds like a sub-plot out of Mission Impossible to me: all this information just waiting to be triggered off at the right time.

The ripple effect of Brizendine's research is still making headlines - especially in Italy where a women's place has always been in the home. You can imagine that any book that generates so much positive PR regarding women is going to be well-received. For example, according to Brizendine's book, the size of the average male brain is about the size of a cantaloupe. In fact it's 9 to 10 percent larger than the female brain. But the size of one's brain is unrelated to one's level of intelligence. Just for the record, the female brain has more "connections" between the brain's two hemispheres, and women have 11 percent more brain cells in the area of the brain called the planum temporale, which has to do with perceiving and processing language.

Apparently then, the old male stereotype of the "strong, silent type" has some truth in it. My wife has been nagging me for years that I don't speak enough or engage in enough witty conversation. And to think, all this time I thought I was just economizing on words, now I know the real culprit is just that I don't know enough words to express myself. Or something to that effect. I guess I'll have to re-read Brizendine's book.

The differences between the male and female brain don't stop there. Women can speak at a speed of 250 words a minute and have 11 percent more neurons in the area of the brain devoted to emotions and memory. Because they have more "mirror neurons" they are also better at observing emotions in others. Women excel at knowing what people are feeling; men have difficulty spotting an emotion unless someone cries or threatens bodily harm. That's not necessarily a bad thing: I think it's important to have a fix on your emotions if someone is trying to rob you at 2:00 in the morning.

But I digress.

If this is true -- that women are better at observing the emotions in others, then why doesn't my wife pick up on the all-to-real expression that covers my face whenever she mentions that her mother-in-law is coming over to visit? Along the same lines, I may be have less brain cells according to Brizendine, but I can pick up quite clearly whenever I my wife has a headache. Which apparently no amount of Tylenol has been able to cure for the past 21 years or so. (Which may be why -- according to The Female Brain that thoughts about sex enter women's brains once every couple of days; where as for men, thoughts about sex occur every minute).

Brizendine's book is really a fascinating read -- no matter what language it's printed in.

So women are smarter than men? That's not news to me. My wife has been telling me that for the last two decades.