Introduction

While I'd love to have something brilliant to say, I really don't right now, so I think I'll just jump into a summary for starters.

Before even beginning the that though, I guess I should remind you that this is all about that wonderful organ, the female brain. Coincidentally, that also happens to be the name of the book Laura and I are reading, The Female Brain, by Louann Brizendine, M.D.

Back to the summary though, Brizendine begins with an illustration of the brain and the various parts that make up the brain--at least the parts that come in as important for her work--with a brief and lay-(wo)man's definition of what each part does.

Immediately following, she has a few pages dedicated to the "cast of neuro-hormone characters." This section is helpful but I found parts of it confusing--which I think I'll get into later.

After that, she has a chart of the phases of a female's life--from fetal to postmenopause--noting the major hormone changes, "what females have that males don't," female-specific brain changes, and how those changes affect the female at that point in her life.

Introduction: What Makes Us Women
Brizendine begins by affirming that the male and female genetic coding are over 99% the same--however that .01% makes all the differences we see between men and women. She goes over the practical applications that looking at women differently than men brings physiologically and such. She brings up some immediate differences in how men's and women's brains work and sets up the book to look at women's brains as they develop, how hormones effect her brain, as well as how the brain changes as she ages.

And that's really how the book is set up. Each of the chapters focus on a phase of the female life span. I'm looking forward to getting into it!

So now that I totally went overbord on the summary, I'll get into my thoughts--The first thing I have highlighted in here is Brizendine's comment on how deeply the female brain is effected by hormones:

" What we've found is that the female brain is so deeply affected by hormones that their influence can be said to create a woman's reality. They can shape a woman's values and desires, and tell her, day to day, what's important. "(3)

I found this so interesting because, while hormones and emotions are not synonomus, most people, will use emotional and hormonal interchangably--it's also not a positive term in a lot of cases--in my expereince, if a woman says she's hormonal or emotional, it's appologetically--is that kind of on track? Anyway, the fact that the female brain is centered around hormones is really a relief to me.
And yeah, I'd agree that this is the thesis-like page.

Like the two of you, I also appriciate the fact that Brizendine does not examine the female brain exclusively--she often brings up the male counter to the female aspect--but I also appriciated that this aspect of understanding isn't all she focused on--Brizendine didn't just set up a list of the ways the female brain was different from a male's--and I feel like that added to the independence of the book.

One quote in the intro that really stuck with me was, "Females perform all the cognitive functions males perform--they just do so by using different brain circuts." (5) the example she gave here was mathmatics. A reason she suggests the field of sciences and mathmatics is so dominantly male isn't because males are smarter in those areas, but rather, the female brain finds human communcation so essential that even when the woman excells in a certain subject, it might not be fullfilling enough for her to pursue it.

--Mary