The current Indian political scenario is dominated by women like Sonia Gandhi, Jaylalithaa, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and, of course, Vasundhara Raje. All of them have similar personalities. All are determined, dominating, disciplined and self respecting. All enjoy taking on challenges and, achieving their targets gives them a kick, no matter how they achieve them. Thus, they fit into a political personality type described by Carl Sandberg as: “A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of, if elected”.

This leads one to believe that this degree of commonality has to have roots in their brains. The brains of male and female differ and their gender personalities are determined genetically in intrauterine life and influenced by the male/female hormones as early as the 7th month of pregnancy.

Differences between the brains of men and women have generated considerable scientific and public interest. One has heard the saying more than once, “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus”. New scientific research has found subtle differences between the brains of men and women. The studies, which include both physical imaging and psychological research, are leading to greater understanding of the differences between the sexes. While it’s not completely clear how the structural differences in male and female brains affect their functioning, scientists theorize that the most likely impact is upon the way men and women process information.

One difference between men and women’s brains is the size. Men’s brains are, on an average, 10 per cent bigger than women’s and have 4 per cent more grey cells. Absolute size of the brain, however, is not the best measure of intelligence and before men claim superiority they need to know that women’s brains contain more nerve cells and cellular connections, which allows their smaller, more compact brains to be more efficient and effective.

Men’s brains tend to perform tasks predominantly with the left-side, which is the logical/rational side of the brain. Women, on the other hand, use both sides of their brains because a woman’s brain has a larger corpus callosum, which means women can transfer data between the right and left hemispheres faster than men. So while Martians performed better in sense of direction, women rely on their stronger memory. However, Venusians’ memory skills can be a doubleedged sword, as they are more inclined to remember everything a Martian does, especially when it comes to irritating or hurtful behaviour.

The other structural difference in men and women’s brains is the limbic size, which controls bonding and nesting instincts. Women, on an average, have larger and deeper limbic systems than men. This is the reason why Venusians tend to be more in touch with their feelings and are better able to express them than men. The larger, deeper limbic system also increases a Venusian’s ability to connect and bond with others and they are thus, hard wired for empathy. The downside of this is that women are more susceptible to depression, not only because of the larger limbic system, but also because they produce less serotonin than men.

The overview is that there are two minds in one brain — the left and the right — which are connected through a nerve-fibre bundle. While both are complementary to each other, in men the left, which is logical, analytical and mathematical, dominates. In women, the dominant right brain makes them more creative, imaginative and emotional on one side, but negative and anxious on the other side! We now know why men are more often obsessed with calculations and why women are dreamier and empathetic.

Not surprisingly, many women have male traits and vice-versa. Therefore, while many males have excelled as painters, dancers and cooks, many women have dominated in the male bastions — administration and politics. People of my age would recollect that Indira Gandhi was considered the only male member in the whole cabinet.