Biological differences separate males from females from conception. The human genome contains 23 chromosomes, sets of genetic information bundled up in structuring proteins. Males have an X-shaped and a Y-shaped chromosome, whereas females have two X-shaped chromosomes. The genetic material within these chromosomes control hormonal development in the womb throughout childhood and even into early adulthood.
In fetal development, boys experience a testosterone boost and develop the male sexual organs. The female brain experiences a surge of estrogen that helps in the regulation of the pubescent development of menstruation and reproductive anatomy. Throughout childhood, boys' and girls' hormonal balances orchestrate continuing differentiation in the areas of brain development, language and communication and spatial reasoning.
In a review of neuroscientific research of the 1990s and 2000s, doctor of neurophysiology Renato M.E. Sabbatini notes the sex-based brain differences of adult men and women. Relative to their size, women have larger temporal lobes than men do. Women have more synapses between their brain cells. Synapses are neural connections between cells. Men have larger brains overall. Areas of the brain that contribute to spatial reasoning develop faster in men than in women.
According to Dr. Sabattini, stereotypical female attitudes include compassion, empathy, sympathy and leniency. Stereotypical male attitudes are hierarchical, fact-based, territorial and hierarchical. This does not mean that all men and women share in these attitudes. Rather, these divisions are the basis of many dominant paradigms in gender studies. New research, spearheaded by Dr. Deborah Cameron and other scholars of sociology, neuroscience and psychology, points to the possibility that human gender differences may not be as significant as previous scholars have claimed.