Spatial ability and gender: nature or nurture?

The Conversation, August 31, 2011

It’s an oft-quoted maxim that men have better spatial ability than women. That’s why, it’s argued, more men are employed in fields such as engineering and technology.

But a new study of separate tribes – one male dominated, and another in which women had more power – in northern India, has suggested that these traits are inherited culturally, not through genetics.