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Are women more receptive to crying babies?
Gender stereotypes… A more than recurring subject lately. A very recent study has reactivated the question of the innate capacity of women to take care of a little one. This study was based on MRI observation of certain areas of the brain. The researchers asked 18 men and women to let their minds wander for a while, then interspersed this period with short soundtracks of baby cries… Result: listening to baby cries, the man keeps his mind at rest while the woman suddenly has her mind on alert. So, would a woman really be better equipped to take care of children? Neurobiologist and researcher Catherine Vidal strongly qualifies the results: “Above all, these results show that we all have different brains. The differences between people of the same sex are more important than the differences between the sexes ”. It points to a methodological bias:“The notion of sample is very important. We cannot, from 20 people, generalize to all humanity. We are in experimental settings which are completely artificial compared to real life ”Catherine Vidal specifies thatwe cannot really pinpoint maternal instinct via a study based solely on an MRI. It does not make sense to isolate certain studies and draw general and absolute conclusions from them. A meta-analysis grouping together all the studies carried out on this subject between 1996 and 2006, seems more relevant and at the very least without appeal: only 2,6% of the researches identified highlight a difference between the sexes.
Gender stereotypes, from science to children’s education
This question of an assignment of parental roles that would be genetically programmed according to sex is agitating the scientific community and is the subject of numerous publications. The way in which this research is popularized is essential since it has repercussions on the collective unconscious and on our choices in society.. “Some studies help to feed the stereotype that men and women are different cerebrally different from birth”, poses Catherine Vidal. These unconscious assumptions can have real consequences on the education given to children. The researcher illustrates her remarks with the case of these American schools where co-education is not welcome in certain subjects on the pretext of a “different sensitivity” to learning between boys and girls. “It is imperative to act at the root and to intervene directly with school teachers to make them aware of these questions” asserts Catherine Vidal. A certainty that has irrigated political discourse for a few months. Najat Vallaud Belkacem, Minister of Women’s Rights, intends to fight against sexist stereotypes from the nursery, basing his remarks on the report that Brigitte Grésy recently submitted to him. At the other end of the chain, there is also a question of strongly encouraging fathers to share parental leave on an equal basis with their partner.