Green Party tells Science Museum to ditch ‘brain sex’ test
The Green Party has hit out at a Science Museum quiz that tells kids they have a “male or female” brain.
Feminist campaigners hit out at London’s Science Museum on Twitter this week, after a woman was taken aback to see ‘girl’ brains coded in pink and ‘boy’ brains blue in the interactive exhibit.
The test, which cites its source as pop-up children’s psychology book ‘The Brain Pack’ by Ron Van Der Meer and A Dudink, claims to be able to tell the difference between the male and female brain.
It says: “Generally males and females are very similar to each other in the way they think. Psychologists have developed tests to show up some differences between the sex.”
But campaigners say it reinforces tired stereotypes.
Green Party’s equalities spokesperson Sarah Cope said: “It’s really disappointing to see the Science Museum reinforcing outdated gender stereotypes in this way.
“The idea of gendered brains is dubious science at best, and this kind of sexism – telling girls at a young age that they have feminine brains – is part of the reason why boys still dominate STEM subjects and less than 10% of engineers in the UK are women.
“The Science Museum can and must do better – and should take down this exhibit immediately.”
