Are men the better navigators?
or is it just easier to navigate in a world built for you
Women have been numerous times told either by a cranky partner stuck on the passenger seat, or in a usual unsolicited comment by a cab driver (one of the many national treasures of Hungary), that we suck at navigation.
I am not the biggest fan of the “gendered brain” explanation and was happy to read that many studies reach a different conclusion, suggesting that boys are not gifted with better spatial abilities but in fact with more freedom.
Gender differences in navigation
Spatial ability is crucial for our memory, understanding of mathematics, and everyday tasks therefore it is a widely studied subject. No consensus exists on the categorization of measures of it, only that it is a complex multilayered process. There are tests for large-scale spatial skills (like navigation) and for small-scale skills (e.g. mental rotation task, water-level task) In some specific tasks men statistically outperform women, and on some other tasks, women surpass men. Navigation is typically a field associated with male advantage but perhaps it is less of a natural gift and more of a privilege.
Men like to take shortcuts
Studies have examined navigation in various ways, e.g. in the natural or built, or even digital environment where contestants have to locate targets indicated on maps.
The primary gender difference detected in navigation shows that women and men tend to apply different strategies when it comes to finding a definite location. While men prefer to take shortcuts and reach a destination more quickly, women take longer routes but along familiar points.
While thinking in directions proves to be faster on the tests it’s easy to imagine that some situations require more the strategy of women, to recall familiar landmarks and memorized routes.
Environmental experience and not spatial ability
Spatial thinking is a learned skill, and it can always be trained but early education is decisive. Before adolescence, there is no considerable difference between boys’ and girls’ abilities and we know that spatial ability varies within different cultures. (just one example from the many, Alaskan Native children demonstrated far greater ability than their white school-aged peers.) The gender gap in this specific competence also lessens in countries where there is better gender equality.
Girls work while boys get to play
It is noted in many cultures (yes western countries included) that girls are more expected to stay at home and while they are already there why not take part in the household chores earlier than boys. Whatever happens to girls inside the family is declared to be far less dire than the hostile outside world has to offer them. No wonder most women all around the world have spatial anxiety walking outside alone.
While girls are expected to stay at home, boys get to explore. Thus a lot of small explorers flood the streets in search of their boundaries.
I remember growing up reading books about boyband fights on the streets or about dangerous no-girls-allowed adventures and feeling a bit of shame. In literature, the women who have no other way must walk the great distances within. Not everyone can be Pippi Longstocking.
The fastest is not the most satisfactory
Our early education (or freedom) is correlating with our ability to navigate. In studies about Navigation tasks, differences vanish when the place is equally familiar to both genders and when it is not examined on an outside location but inside the house, women outperform men. The streets yet still home ground for men and they reach their destination faster.
I would sum up all these studies with the assertion that when the task is to reach a point the fastest men are better, but when the task is to reach your destination while a pervert is following you, and you still have to buy groceries women are the best.
Girls just wanna have fun
Scientists paid significant attention to this topic and as always many interpret the gender differences in spatial thinking as a result of different brain structures (who doesn’t like the classics) or blame it on the female hormones but more findings highlight the important role that male/female socialization practices play in the development of spatial skills. So next time when you are lost remember that this is just another sign that the world wasn’t built for you.
sources:
- Davis, H.E., Stack, J. & Cashdan, E. Cultural Change Reduces Gender Differences in Mobility and Spatial Ability among Seminomadic Pastoralist-Forager Children in Northern Namibia. Hum Nat32, 178–206 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09388-7
- Dúll, Andrea (2009), Helyek, tárgyak, viselkedés. Környezetpszichológiai tanulmányok.