About five years ago I bought a book called "The Wonder of Girls". It was mentioned in some book club as different look at what it means to be a girl today.

The Michael Gurian who has a scholarly background in sociology set out in his book to ask his readers to not lose site of yet look beyond the theories of Gloria Steinem, et al.

Socialization, Gurian argued, should not completely define why girls, if not woman, are the way they are today's society. Given some decades ago, yes, but things had changed since those days where feminism underscored the role of socialization.

Gurian indicates that there is a real "nature" to being a girl / growing up to be a woman. Though socialization may have its affect, their is a certain neuro-biological aspect to being a girl.

Is it safe to say that without having that neuro-biological basis be considered a short coming?

You linked to a great review of the book, but honestly, without reading it, I am not sure what I think of the whole idea. I think that surely women are different from men, but I also think each individual is, well, individual. I am supremely analytical, very mechanically inclined, nurturing, caring, artistic, articulate...a whole plethora of things that cannot be only placed in the "male qualities" category nor in the "female qualities" category. But I am a woman. And I am a feminist. I don't think its a dirty word to be a feminist and I do think women are equal to the tasks that men are.

Great topic starter, CZ. I'll come back to write more later on today.

I see socialization as being more of a shortcoming than any neuro-biological background.

Have you noticed there are a lot of women who try to outdo men at being men? Chalk it up to socialization. Men are still more accepted in our society (and most others). People want to be accepted. So women now feel they 'have to' compete with men to be accepted.

Prejudice is the after taste that will live on forever. The Bible talks mostly about men and their superiority over women. God is male. Women are not mentioned in our Constitution. We did finally make it into the Amendments to the Constitution.

Yet, human nature does not change easily. Men have been dominant for centuries and that does not change without much hard work. Maybe it doesn't change ever?

Any woman who is not still fighting for equal rights is a knuckle-dragger. We don't have equal rights, we don't have respect! We darn well better keep working on this if we want our children and their children to have better lives.

Yes, men and women have better lives if there is equal respect and equal rights!