Definition: Female Communication

Female Communication
The Female Brain is a book by Louann Brizendine, M.D. whose main thesis is that women’s behavior is radically different from that of men due to hormonal differences. Brizendine argues that the human female brain is affected by the following hormones: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, (oxytocin), neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin), and difference in architecture of the brain (prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, amygdale) that regulates such hormones and neurotransmitters. These hormones have a life cycle of their own defining specific passages in a women's life including, puberty, and menopause. The book was not fact checked, and the author culled some of her supportive statistics from self-help gurus who seem to have fabricated them (see Fact-checking the Female Brain). At the beginning of the book, the author created a table that depicts her views on human female neuropsychological development.

Main differences between the female and male brains

The author sees neurological differences between men and women as significant enough that it makes sense to speak of a "female brain" and a "male brain". She believes that the former has larger resources dedicated to communication and emotion, which she deduces from the fact that the female hippocampus is larger than the male, and that the "female brain" has 11% more neurons dedicated to language. Testosterone level is a differentiator between male and female as it is so much lower in women. As a result, the author sees women as being cooperative, less competitive, less aggressive, more concerned with emotion of others, and more focused on the group than the self alone. She sees men as being 20 times more aggressive.

According to Brizendine, during their teens the differentiation between the female and male brain is significant. Girls, according to the author, speak faster and two to three times as much as boys. She argues that girls need social connection and ongoing communication opportunities. When those are lacking, a girl after puberty is twice as vulnerable as a boy to depression, according to Brizendine. On the other hand, because of lesser developed communication skills boys are a lot more at risk for autism.

The impact of motherhood on the female brain

Per the author, a woman's brain is altered forever after motherhood to enhance the survival of her children. The author analyzes the related metamorphosis of the women's brain in technical detail at the hormonal level.

Love and Sex

The author also addresses at length love and sex. Her findings, based on neuroscience, say that women look for economic stability and loyalty in men. Women's focus is nesting, whilst men's is fertility. However, Brizendine indicates things get more complex. Women do want long-term relationships with loyal and caring providers. However, they occasionally do reproduce with a philanderer who appears to have superior genes. Brizendine states that 10% of children are fathered by such philanderers without the his knowledge. Superior genes are characteristics of males who have greater symmetry in their body and face. Also, the loyalty of a male seems incredibly predetermined by the length of a certain gene (which influences the manufacture of vasopressin receptors)--the longer, the more loyal.

Menopause

The chapter on menopause and the mature women suggests that marriages go through a rebalancing of the roles if they are to survive. The changing hormonal balance, including the drop off in estrogen, triggers a marked reduction in nurturing behavior. Nurturing children and husband becomes really tasking. Postmenopausal women substitute nurturing with self-actualization. This is especially pronounced if the kids are out of college and the husband is retired and expects three meals a day. The terms of the marriage need to be renegotiated if the marriage is to survive. It is women who initiate 65% of the divorces among couples over 50.

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