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The Sexual Paradox: Troubled Boys, Gifted Girls, and the Real Difference Between the Sexes

Abstract

Why do girls do increasingly well in the classroom everywhere in the industrialized world, yet as adults demonstrate different career and life trajectories than men? By synthesizing recent evidence from the disciplines of developmental psychology, neuroscience, genomics, behavioral economics and education, Susan Pinker up-ends several common assumptions about the sexes: that male and female are developmentally and biologically equivalent, that ability is all it takes to succeed, and that women and men have identical life preferences and notions of success.

Biography

Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist who writes about social science for the daily press. She was educated at McGill University and the University of Waterloo, after which she spent 25 years in clinical practice and teaching developmental psychology, first at Dawson College, then at McGill University. She writes an empirically based column for the business section of the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, as well as regular opinion and feature articles on psychology, public policy, education, and business for the international press. In 2009 her first book, The Sexual Paradox, was awarded the American Psychological Association's most prestigious literary prize, The William James Book Award, for "a recent book that provides coherence to the diverse subject matter of psychology," and that is distinguished by its literary quality.

Her writing has also been recognized in awards from the Canadian Medical Association (2000), the Periodical Writing Association of Canada (2002, 2010), and she has been nominated for the John Alexander Media Award (2000), the Aventis Pasteur Medal for Excellence in Health Research Journalism (1999), the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award (2007), and the BC National Award for Non-Fiction. (2009) The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the Real Gender Gap, sparked international interest and debate when it was published in 2008, and has been published in 18 countries. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Times of London, the BBC, Der Spiegel, The Economist, Atlantic Monthly, The Financial Times, NBC's Today Show, and The New York Science Times, among other publications.

Susan Pinker lives in Montreal with her husband and three children. Her next book is about the science of social bonds, and will be published in 2013.