Last Thursday, Rosalind Barnett, senior scientist at the Women's Studies Research Center, lectured in the Epstein Lecture Hall about her recently published book, in which she investigates the misconceptions that label boys as academically, intellectually and emotionally inferior to girls.

Co-authored with Caryl Rivers, professor of Journalism at Boston University's College of Communication, The Truth About Girls and Boys: Challenging Toxic Stereotypes About Our Children, was released this September. The book's main focus is dispelling the myth that there is a "boy crisis."

"This crisis came to attention a few years ago," began Barnett. "Boys are falling behind girls in education; these stories are everywhere in the media, … but where do these narratives come from, and do they tell an accurate story?"

According to Barnett, the answer to this question is a resounding "no." There is only a "some boy" crisis. According to a June 2006 study from the Education Sector, over the past three decades, boys' test scores have actually improved and more boys are going to college.

"The real story is not bad news about boys doing worse. It is good news about girls doing better," said Barnett.

She also dispelled the notion that empathy and nurturing do not come naturally to boys and that boys are often forced to mask these traits due to other factors, such as societal expectations.

"There is no evidence that men, by their nature, cannot nurture. … In fact, major studies show that fathers can be just as good at parenting as mothers," said Barnett.

She emphasized that parents play a significant role in the way in which boys develop differently than girls. According to Barnett, studies have shown that a mother's interactions toward her children depend on the child's sex. Many mothers engage in conversation with and expect responses from their young daughters, asking them questions such as, "You're playing with the toy. You like that, right?"

With boys, however, this sort of conversation is not as often elicited by mothers, who are more likely to issue firm commands like "come here" to their sons.

"I greatly admire [Barnett] and her work. Because I work in this arena, I was not surprised by her work, but her lecture gave me new insights and helped me think more deeply on the subject of boys in our culture," said Janet Freedman, a visiting scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, after the event.

Approximately 20 people attended the event to listen to an overview of Barnett's findings in the book, which was followed by a discussion session.

In an interview with the Justice, Barnett said that there is a public misconception that boys have a lower intellectual capability than girls do and that it is essential to bring scientific findings to public attention in order to correct this incorrect perception.

"The junction between popular and scientific literature is so different. By writing this book, the goal was to challenge the popular literature with science and put it into a presentable form," said Barnett.

Barnett is the author or co-author of eight books and 115 articles, which have been published in publications such as The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.

Barnett has also received a number of national awards, including the Kennedy School of Government's 1999 Goldsmith Research Award and Harvard University Graduate School's Ann Rowe award for outstanding contribution to women's education. She and Rivers are currently working on a new book titled, The New Soft War on Women, according to her biography on the Brandeis website.