My experience talking to groups of students over the years has been largely consistent: they’ve always generally agreed with the idea that there are ‘essential differences’ between the sexes. It’s a popular opinion, fed by the fallout from a number of books (heard of the phrase ‘Men are from Mars’?), but is there any scientific evidence to support it? Are men hard-wired to be competitive, assertive and analytical and women hard-wired to be nurturing, compassionate and constantly multi-tasking? Do we get our ‘maleness’ or ‘femaleness’ in hormonal development in the womb or is it something acquired as we get plied with pink or blue cuddly toys, tea or train sets? Is it a construct we can investigate by looking at the brain? Or do we have to look at culture, at the social pressures that encourage males and females to behave in a certain way? The stereotypes that can result in conforming to certain language and behaviour are amusingly parodied in the following video. Those of you studying the level 5 unit ‘Language and Society’ … take note!