applicants have to prove that they possess the necessary skills, whereas women are just assumed to possess them. But it is not only men who stand to lose because of the widespread conviction that women have superior verbal skills. Someone else who thinks men and women are naturally suited to different kinds of work is Baron-Cohen. [Cameron D., 1998].
In The Essential Difference he offers the following «scientific» careers advice:
1)" People with the female brain make the most wonderful counsellors, primary school teachers, nurses, carers, therapists, social workers, mediators, group facilitators or personnel staff.
2) People with the male brain make the most wonderful scientists, engineers, mechanics, technicians, musicians, architects, electricians, plumbers, taxonomists, catalogists, bankers, toolmakers, programmers or even lawyers. « The difference between the two lists reflects what Baron-Cohen takes to be the »essential difference« between male and female brains. The female-brain jobs make use of a capacity for empathy and communication, whereas the male ones exploit the ability to analyse complex systems. Baron-Cohen is careful to talk about - »people with the female / male brain« rather than »men and women". [Cameron D., 1998].
He stresses that there are men with female brains, women with male brains, and individuals of both sexes with «balanced» brains. He refers to the major brain types as «male» and «female & raquo;, however, because the tendency is for males to have male brains and females to have female brains. And at many points it becomes clear that in spite of his caveats about not confusing gender with brain sex, he himself is doing exactly that. Baron-Cohen classifies nursing as a female-brain, empathy-based job (though if a caring and empathetic nurse cannot measure dosages accurately and make systematic clinical observations she or he risks doing serious harm) and law as a male-brain, system-analysing job (though a lawyer, however well versed in the law, will not get far without communication and people-reading skills). [Cameron D., 1998].
These categorisations are not based on a dispassionate analysis of the demands made by the two jobs. They are based on the everyday common-sense knowledge that most nurses are women and most lawyers are men. At its most basic it is simply the proposition that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to communicate. All versions of the myth share this basic premise; most versions, in addition, make some or all of the following claims:
1. Language and communication matter more to women than to men; women talk more than men.
2. Women are more verbally skilled than men.
. Men «s goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women» s tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things and facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.
. Men «s way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring and maintaining status; women »s use of language is cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony.
. These differences routinely lead to «miscommunication» betw...
