“There is no unisex brain,” neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine states in her fascinating and controversial book on the hard-wiring of gender differences. The author readily admits that social conditioning plays a role in these differences. And it turns out that 99% of male and female genetic coding is identical. But the 1% variation is crucial.
As she does in her follow-up book, The Male Brain, with lively writing, Brizendine follows the female brain through its entire lifespan. Drawing on interesting studies and on the latest advances in brain scans, The Female Brain comes to bold conclusions. Though the author has been criticized for some factual errors (such as Cordelia Fine in Delusions of Gender (which is a hands-down must read) that have since been corrected, her book remains an engaging piece of popular science.