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From: djk@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Doris J. Karlson)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Logic and Language
Message-ID: <5719@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 1 Nov 88 10:51:08 GMT
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I recently heard of a study (I heard this form a couple of sources,
one of which was the SF Chronicle) where the brains of males and
females were disected and compared.  They found that the bundle of
fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is consistantly
and significantly thicker in females than in males.  Since the left
brain supposedly controls the language and logical functions and the
right side supposedly controls the emotions, they theorized that this
greater connectivity enables women to combine the two realms of
thought more than men.

The article also mentioned a study where men and women were placed in
conferences where some negotiating took place.  Later, they were asked
to summarize the outcome.  The men would remember that "Mr. X agreed
to the proposal", whereas the women would convey that "Mr. X
*reluctantly* agreed to the proposal".  Thus strengthening the
proposition that women are not only aware of the logical facts of the
meeting, but also of the emotions.

Perhaps this explains why women express their emotions more readily
than men do.  To express an emotion, which originates on the right
side of the brain, some information would have to be passed to the
left brain where a sentence can be formed.  This could also explain
why women are more likely to act on their intuition (and the phrase "a
woman's intuition").  For whatever reason, there is a stigma in our
society against making decisions based on any information that isn't
completely logical.  So when women voice concerns about emotional
issues, they are offen dismissed as being illogical.

These findings suggest that it is not the case that women are "alien
to the world of logic", but that women can express both logical and
non-logical ideas.  (Non-logical does not imply illogical.)  And men
are less capable of expressing non-logical ideas.


-Doris Karlson