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A journey into gender equality: the world as a "brain influencer"

The brain is plastic and permeable: it changes with life experiences and is shaped by context. What does this mean for gender equality?

It is now well established that the brain has two distinctive features: the first is plasticity, meaning it changes according to life experiences, starting from earliest infancy; the second is permeability, which means that the characteristics of the context a person lives in influence their performance.

What does this tell us about gender issues? Is there any connection between gender equality and the brain?

Female and male: where do the differences come from?

While it's true that we are born with a genetically defined biological sex, we are exposed to different experiences depending on the gender we belong to, and this in turn affects our biological structure, leading to different destinies for males and females.

Our social relationships, starting with the family and continuing at school, play a fundamental role in our development, in how we perceive our potential and aspirations — without underestimating the effect of stereotypes and socially defined conditioning.

This is how we can understand how the world around us can be seen as a "Brain Influencer": changes in performance due to learning are associated with functional and anatomical changes.

The effects of the family context in the first years of life

The first context in which we are formed, and by which we are conditioned, is the one closest to us: the family.

In the book "Dalla parte delle bambine", Elena Gianini Belotti writes that the roots of our individuality are deep and escape us because they do not belong to us: others cultivated them for us, without our knowing.

From the moment a child's existence becomes known, parents, relatives and friends relate differently depending on the sex, creating stimuli that shape character and the vision of self and the world in different ways.

Through games, expectations and other forms of "gender expression" — such as clothing and make-up — female children are taught a way of representing themselves and being in the world that differs from that of male children.

In this work of conforming, important and precious parts of the personality are lost, instead of being enriched regardless of biological sex.

The crucial role of the school system

The family is only one of the settings in which individuals are formed: childminders, nurseries, kindergarten and primary school are institutional contexts that play a fundamental role in building identity.

It is essential to address gender differences in school settings, otherwise school risks becoming the "first link in a chain of inequalities that echoes into adult life, and particularly into the world of work".

From school to work: the weight of stereotypes

The stereotype, in its negative sense, takes the form of a hostile, negative or belittling attitude towards a person belonging to a particular group.

Social psychology professor Naomi Ellemers clarifies, in a 2018 article, that gender is considered a primary characteristic in how a person is perceived: children and adults immediately and implicitly group unknown individuals by gender, even when this categorisation is irrelevant. This contributes to the formation and persistence of stereotypes.

The evaluative differences induced by gender stereotypes can have major consequences on career development and income levels, accumulating into substantial inequalities over the course of life.

All this contributes to the imbalance we experience today in the world of work, where women often have to shoulder a very complex balancing act between work and family. A rebalancing of social roles and of corporate welfare and flexibility policies are fundamental steps towards true inclusion and gender equality.

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