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A review by leigh_ann_15_deaf
That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) about Working Together by Joanne Lipman
5.0
Almost nothing but well-documented, cited facts. If you find yourself become offended or defensive, consider that something you need to work on, or even to change in order to improve yourself and how you contribute to (or detract from) the workplace environment.
I do have one skepticism about something Lipman briefly discussed: that the biological differences of men and women hardwire individualism in men and collaboration in women. Those are learned, ingrained behaviors, particularly in that girls are punished for exhibiting leadership qualities. Boys are not taught to empathize or caretake the way girls are groomed to do. So the fact that men are hormonally threatened by women's tears is more likely a psychosomatic response brought on by an inability to recognize and understand women's feelings. If women are taught to recognize the feelings of both men and women, men can be taught to recognize feelings of both men and women. Women's tears aren't activating "caveman" DNA, as one study cited here theorizes.
From here we move to MRI imagery of a male vs female brain, which suggests female brains have much more wiring, so to speak. More neural pathways and interbrain communication. This is conducive to multitasking, but you don't have to multitask to empathize with others.
Lipman seems to suggest with this very brief discussion that the difference in wiring accounts for gendered differences in perceiving one another, but I'm not convinced. This is highly reminiscent of biological determinism and "boys will be boys" mentality. Certainly there appear to be differences in wiring, as in how information is transferred and interpreted throughout the brain, but what exactly do those differences mean, and how are those differences developed? Are these differences perceivable in children? What information is transferred/processed at these points or intersections? Etc. There's a paucity of information regarding that here.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book.
I do have one skepticism about something Lipman briefly discussed: that the biological differences of men and women hardwire individualism in men and collaboration in women. Those are learned, ingrained behaviors, particularly in that girls are punished for exhibiting leadership qualities. Boys are not taught to empathize or caretake the way girls are groomed to do. So the fact that men are hormonally threatened by women's tears is more likely a psychosomatic response brought on by an inability to recognize and understand women's feelings. If women are taught to recognize the feelings of both men and women, men can be taught to recognize feelings of both men and women. Women's tears aren't activating "caveman" DNA, as one study cited here theorizes.
From here we move to MRI imagery of a male vs female brain, which suggests female brains have much more wiring, so to speak. More neural pathways and interbrain communication. This is conducive to multitasking, but you don't have to multitask to empathize with others.
Lipman seems to suggest with this very brief discussion that the difference in wiring accounts for gendered differences in perceiving one another, but I'm not convinced. This is highly reminiscent of biological determinism and "boys will be boys" mentality. Certainly there appear to be differences in wiring, as in how information is transferred and interpreted throughout the brain, but what exactly do those differences mean, and how are those differences developed? Are these differences perceivable in children? What information is transferred/processed at these points or intersections? Etc. There's a paucity of information regarding that here.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book.