Nature, Hormones and the Female Brain

I'm a 51 year old female in the throes of perimenopause, with a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Caltech and a daughter about to enter puberty, so naturally a new book that came out this month: by Dr. Louann Brizendine is of great interest to me. As a consequence of my background in genetics as well as my parenting experiences, my perspective on the nature/nurture balance--with respect to human behavior--has shifted greatly towards nature. Consequently, I was taken aback when I read in Newsweek that critics of this new book believe that "nurture plays such a huge role in human behavior that focusing on biology is next to meaningless." In my mind that view is surprisingly out of touch, based primarily on fear rather than science.

I fully understand that the nature/nurture debate is riddled with sensitive, politically charged issues, so before I proceed, I would like to clarify my point of view. First of all, I would never say that many of the struggles that women experience daily in this male-dominated world aren't seriously impacted by narrow gender-specific cultural stereotypes. Nor would I say that significant environmental factors experienced by some individuals are not of paramount importance to understanding the course of their lives. When I state a shift towards "nature", I'm talking specifically about the strong influences of our innate chemical make-up--or in the case of gender-specific behavior, influences of gender-specific brain chemistry--on human behavior. Our innate chemical make-up, derived from our genetic blueprint, starts a set of balls rolling in specific directions, and although those directions can be somewhat modified by experience, only extreme conditions, like deprivation and abuse, can significantly alter their paths.

The subject of this controversial new book, The Female Brain, is the influence of gender-specific chemistry on women's brain activity, and consequently female-specific behavior. Although the field of neuroscience has not yet advanced to the point of connecting highly specific neuronal activity with precisely defined behavior, it is possible at this point to correlate the exposure of the brain to specific neuro-hormones, at distinct phases of life, with the presence of gender-specific behaviors. And that is what Dr. Brizendine, founder and director of the UCSF Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic, does in The Female Brain. Along with providing numerous examples correlating the appearance of specific behaviors with the scientifically documented hormonal changes that occur in adolescent girls and women, the author does an extremely thorough job recording the enormous number of scientific studies that support her personal observations. In addition, she includes extensive chapter notes that specify the sources of her ideas. Although there may be some readers who find the generalizations presented by the author overly simplistic and thus refutable, or an excuse for stereotyped female behaviors, most women and parents of girls will be familiar with at least some of the stories she tells. And Dr. Brizendine emphasizes both the constant interaction that takes place between these behaviors and the socio-cultural environment in which they are displayed, as well as the important point that the female brain is in no way inferior to its male counterpart, simply distinct from an anatomical and chemical standpoint. Men may actually feel insulted by some of her descriptions, but minimizing the value of the male brain is not her intention. Instead, her goal is to provide women with an understanding of their innate biology so that they may reach their full potential.

Perhaps the reason I am less concerned than some about the views expressed in this book is that, in general, I don't find the emphasis on nature as the driving force of human behavior to be as depressing and hopeless a view as some do. Instead, I find it provides a very non-judgmental, empathetic perspective of the origins and sources of human behavior. Regarding female behavior, in specific, I believe that the female brain possess unique strengths that as a female I cherish, ones that enrich all areas of my life, ones I would never chose to forfeit.