The Male vs. Female Brain

The Essential Difference- The Truth about the Male and Female Brain by Simon Baron-Cohen

Recently, I read through a book by Simon Baron-Cohen, a prominent UK psychologist and cousin of Sasha Baron-Cohen, regarding his theory of the male and female brain.  He is most known for his research into empathy and developmental disorders (i.e. autism) which have brought him around to this more over-arching theory.

Concept:
The female brain has evolved to be better structured for empathy whereas the male brain is structured for understanding and building systems.  This leads to three types of brains: Empathy (E), Systematizing (S) or Balanced (B) brain.
He does point out that males can have female brains and visa versa, but on average females score high on empathy than males and males score higher on the systematizing tasks than women.

Behavior:
Dr. Baron-Cohen spends much of the book analyzing the behavior of children and their interactions to support his claim.  Boys, for example, choose to play with mechanical toys (trucks, cars) and enjoy ordering and analyzing facts like baseball or soccer scores.  Girls, however, tend to play with dolls and adopt a more social style of play.  They exhibit more cooperative and pretend play which greatly involves interacting and reading the actions of another person or playmate.

Secondly, he reviews the method of developing social stratus or hierarchy.  Boys, he says, quickly establish social dominance, often squashing the weakest for the greater reward of power.