- Title: Why Men Don't Iron
- Date: 30th June 1998
- Description:Documentary series which sets out to debunk some of the commonly held myths about the differences between men and women. 2 of 3: This programme reveals how biology plays a role in men's drive to succeed more than it does for women.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:QUALITY TIME TELEVISION LTD
- Programme Episode:Episode 2
- Programme Series: A 3 PART SERIES ON THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF SEX DIFFERENCES - The myth that the brains of the sexes are the same explodes with a whole new series of scientific revelations. The old view is that women are pale, inferior copies of men. The current view is that there is no difference between the sexes. Now science upsets both views. Brain scientists - most working in 1990's America - find the sexes are distinct in how they act and think. Why can't a woman be more like a man?Because nature says she can't. This eye-opening series will illustrate how the major sex differences in the brain affect our daily lives. It will pull together the mainstream research into the male and female brains and examine the new evidence showing why the sexes really do behave differently at home, work and school. The evidence is visual and dramatic: At school, reports show a dramatic difference in the behaviour - and results - of girls and boys. What few realise (and the education reports fail to mention) is how the brain organisation makes for that difference. Study upon study shows why boys fidget, get bored, are put on calming drugs - or are sent home for just being boys. Boys are failing at school because they are being treated like girls. At work he comes out on top. Bottom too. This does not mean he is superior of inferior. He has a neurological edge, from which he often falls. His drive, his form of concentration, the risks he takes, his highs and lows, all differ from hers. The glass ceiling is science fiction. Yet in the vast middle range of abilities women show far greater competency. At home the sexes differ emotionally. The idea that the male has a suppressed female side waiting to be developed is false. The pleasure centres are different, the rewards are different - even how the sexes relax is different. The family chores that each is willing to do differ radically. Men are not neurologically wired to be New Men. The subject is provocative. When an audience of American college students told a respected female researcher they feared her studies of sex differences could endanger hard-earned women's rights, she replied: "Science is science. The truth it reveals must be faced with and dealt with." The aim of this series is to do just that.
- Transmission Date:30/06/1998
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 1990s