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Saydrah · 4849 days ago · link · · parent · post: A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not “Crazy”
Remember, though, that infants understand more than they are able to vocalize! Pre-verbal infants can understand and communicate in sign language. It may be that daughters mimic their mothers' vocalization patterns when they begin speaking, while sons mimic their fathers. That doesn't mean the difference is not gender based (if it weren't, half of daughters would mimic fathers, and sons their mothers) but it may not be hardware related. It would be interesting to compare the early speech of female infants with single fathers to that of female infants in two-parent and single mother households.
There certainly are intrinsic differences (to deny that is erasure of transgendered individuals; if no differences are innate, then who would feel like the "wrong" gender from early childhood, and why?) but I think it is important to consider early nurturing rather than simply writing things off as nature. Too much emphasis of nature over nurture leads to things like, "Well, my daughter is just less interested in math--the sexes are different!" when the real problem may be that the daughter has no female role models with an interest in math.