The First Sex Helen Fisher Analysis

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Helen Fisher’s book, “The First Sex. The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World,” discusses how women are evolving and becoming the more powerful gender. In the first chapter, Fisher discusses her concept of web thinking. Web thinking is how women take a “holistic” view of issues at hand. Women integrate more details of the world around them, with details including body posture, object positions, etc.; while men tend to focus more on the immediate issue, without putting the issue in a larger context. Fisher refers to the male thinking process, as “step thinking.” Web-thinking is believed to begin in childhood, due to the fact that young girls have a harder time detaching themselves cognitively from their surroundings. …show more content…
Studies show that men tend to speak more in professional settings, while women do more talking at home and when they are with other women. Although, women are much more articulate with the points they are trying to convey. This can be explained because of estrogen; it builds on the spine of each nerve cell, increasing the links between nerve cells. This allows estrogen to flow through information among neurons. As women across the world are coming into more power, they are exercising a new form of feminine leadership and power, thus giving the public a more contextual, holistic, diversified view of issues on their mind. Women are dominating the teaching field at all levels, except for collegiate …show more content…
She states that women are socially smart and they have the ability to read others, understand their concerns, and help them adapt to roles much better than men. Fisher states that women are much more sensitive to touch and they also pick up subtle auditory clues; this all relates to childrearing as I am sure that you have heard of the phrase “a woman’s touch” and women are much more likely to wake up to even the smallest sound from their child. In the evolutionary era, women would taste the food to ensure that it was safe for their child to eat; therefore, their taste buds inspect new substances to ensure that nothing harmful is entering the body. Women are more likely to use and understand body language. With people’s emotional messages being 90 percent nonverbal, women’s skills to pick up on these nuances make them extremely valuable in any occupation where understanding and getting along is required. Something that I found interesting as a criminal justice major, was the section on “Women as Detectives, Police Officers, and Advisers.” Fisher states that only 13% of police officers and detectives in the US are women. Although, women detectives are much better at getting more information out of witnesses because they are seen as a more sympathetic