Pink brains and education: a postfeminist analysis of neuroscience and neurosexism

Abstract

This article examines the representations of girls and gender that
operate within the popular ideas of ‘pink brains’ and ‘blue brains’.
As brain research moves into education and teacher training, what
are the implications for curriculum, pedagogy, and school
organization? We noticed that findings from neuroscience confirm
familiar images of girls: as early maturing, emotional, needing to
feel accepted by teachers, and as needing abstract ideas connected
to real life. Writers utilizing the evidence of brain research are
quick to call brains ‘hard-wired’ and equally quick to call for sex-
segregated classrooms. In interpreting neuroscience in critical
ways, the social contexts and political implications of imaging
young women as hard-wired brains are highlighted.