Boys find it easier than girls to construct block buildings from two-dimensional blueprints, and to assess correctly how the angle of the surface level of water in a jug would change when the jug was tilted to different angles. The better spacial ability of men could certainly help to explain the male superiority in map-reading we noted earlier. Boys did better. More women than men liked to turn the map round, physically to match the direction in which they are travelling when they are trying to find their way. While the male brain gives men the edge in dealing with things and theorems, the female brain is organised to respond more sensitively to all sensory stimuli.
Women do better than men on tests of verbal ability.
Females are equipped to receive a wider range of sensory imformation, to connect and relate that information with greater facility, to place a primacy on personal relationships, and to communicate. Cultural influences may reinforce these strengths, but the advantages are innate. The differences are apparent in the very first hours after birth. Girls say their first words and learn to speak in short sentences earlier than boys and are generally more fluent in their pre-school years. They read earlier, too, and do better in coping with the building blocks of language like grammar, punctuation and spelling.