Sex Differences: Modern Biology and the Unisex Fallacy

Few people realize just how much modern science can tell us about the differences between men and women. Christen, a biologist and prolific science writer, provides the first comprehensive overview of new research in this area in many years. While some of these new findings are themselves stunning, Christen goes beyond simplistic "biology is destiny" arguments. He constructs a convincing case for linking social and biological approaches in order to understand complex differences in human behavior.

Biologists now agree, says Christen, that the sexes differ in brain structure as they do in body structure. He persuasively links these differences in cerebral anatomy to differences in behavioral and intellectual propensity. Taking his readers on a wide-ranging journey through psychology, endocrinology, demography, and a host of other fields, Christen shows that the biological and the social are not antagonistic. To the contrary, social factors tend to exaggerate the biological rather than neutralize it.

Sure to be controversial, Sex Differences takes on traditional feminism for its refusal to confront the evidence on biologically determined sex differences. Christen argues for a feminism that sees traits common to women in a positive light, in the tradition of such early feminists as Clemence Royer and Margaret Sanger, as well as contemporary feminist sociobiologists like Sarah Hrdy. We deny sex differences, says Christen, only at the price of scientific truth and our own self-respect.

Readable and broad-ranging, Sex Differences will appeal to the general reader as well as specialists in the study of human relationships and gender studies. Experts in this area will find the conclusions drawn from other fields fascinating,