• Question: Is one gender better at learning skills than another? Why?

    Asked by bealeewh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I don’t know, but I don’t think there is any conclusive evidence one way or the other. Don’t quote me on that though, it’s probably more Stu’s area.

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Controversial! /sportsj11-zone/2011/06/do-boys-have-bigger-brains

      Although there are differences *on average* between girls’ and boys’ brains, one of the big ones is that girls seems to be able to use both the left and the right side of their brain to do tasks (maybe why women are apparently better at multitasking – doing more than one thing at a time) and boys seem to use their left brain more than their right brain (which can help with technical problems and logic).

      So it depends on what type of skills you mean – language, mathematics, logic, creativity etc.

      There is also the fact that people might like or do more of certain things, which means they develop that skill through practice, compared to someone who doesnt get as much of a chance to practice that skill:

      So if your Dad encouraged you to learn about how to fix a bike or a car when you were younger, you would learn more about that skill than someone who was never shown how to do that (boy or girl).

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