Do women and men differ in their cognitive abilities?

Answer 1

Yes, depending very heavily on how you define and measure "cognitive ability".


Men may be expected to do better in numerical, spacial, and logical problems.


Women may do better in verbal, social, emotional problems.


People disagree on this issue not on the basis of fact but on perception. Society places a lot of value on the male-dominated numerical, spacial and logical realms. Women are expected to equal men in these in order to justify the assumption that women are "as good" as men. This is WRONG! Women and men excel at different things and should concentrate on their comparative advantages. We aren't all the same and that's a GOOD THING. So stop worrying.

Answer 2

There are biological cognitive differences between males and females. These differences are reflected in brain structure and the genetic variations caused by the differences between the X and Y chromosomes. To generalize, men are superior at spacial and mathematical skills; whereas woman have better developed emotional and verbal skills. Specifically the Broca and Wernicke areas of the female brain are more developed than are those areas in the male brain; whereas men have a more neurons in the cerebral cortex than do women.

This all said, if you superimpose two bell curves over each other to represent the male and female distributions, you will find some women who are superior to many men in both spacial and mathematical skills, and some men superior to many women in emotional and verbal skills.