• Question: Is there any link remaining between biological and social/cultural differences between men and women when studying neuroscience?

    Asked by FlorenceJ on 16 Dec 2025.
    • Photo: Caroline Ratcliffe

      Caroline Ratcliffe answered on 16 Dec 2025:

      Wow @FlorenceJ, what a great question!

      The recent school exam results in the United Kingdom did show that boys are closing the gap on girls and in 2025 they outperformed for the first time in 7 years.
      From the area I currently work in, where I am training students in the NHS, I do see more female students than male but this is common within the NHS as there are around 70% female NHS staff members according to research. Neurophysiology is one of the qualifications I teach!

      If we are speaking about a patient point of view, from my own working history, I have seen biological genetic links between traditional XX (female) and XY (male) chromosomes. I have had individuals who are XYX, XYY, XXX so this is something I always consider now when speaking with new patients. I hope this helps answer your question?

    • Photo: Ben Turnbull

      Ben Turnbull answered on 27 Jan 2026:

      Neuroscience is generally studied more by young women than young men; for some reason, both Biology and Psychology is like that and Neuroscience is really the bridge between them.

      Is there a link Biologically? I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s anything innate that would make women prefer these subjects or ways of learning.

      Socio-culturally, probably, almost certainly yes. The more social a subject the more ‘soft’ it’s seen as and generally young women have been pushed towards softer subjects for a long time. There’s a stereotype that men are better at maths, logic, reasoning, and ‘hard science’ and this is reflected in the population that study it. it’s a shame really, because there’s no innate reason why men would prefer or be better at this things.

      If you’re interested in social/cultural explanations I’d read about the differences in what men and women were allowed to do in history and Psychological concepts such as ‘Stereotype threat’.

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