Just Like a Woman

Book excerpt: In recent years researchers in many scientific fields have actively focused on what being female really means. Their startling conclusion: Almost every assumption made about women--physical, medical, historical, psychological--turns out to be untested, unproven, or untrue. Stereotypes about women are as old as time--and as current as still-too-prevalent beliefs based on male models. Acclaimed health writer Dianne Hales brings together the cutting-edge research in anthropology, physiology, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and medicine in a book that reveals the complex interconnections between all aspects of a woman's life from infancy to old age. Gender science is now clearly demonstrating that women are not the second sex but a separate sex, unique in body, mind, and spirit. Just Like a Woman explains what it means to live in a woman's body, think with a woman's brain, drink in the world with a woman's senses, and react with a woman's sensibility to the stresses and elations of her multiple roles. Refreshingly free of ideology, this meticulously documented book offers a stunningly liberating message that expands our concept of human potential--and will forever change the way every woman views herself.