I've had discussions with people about the differences in males and females. They usually go well, with each of us leaving with a better understanding of things. I was speaking with a girl about boys and girls at young ages and their prefrences to things like toys, clothing, colors etc. We both acknoledged that there was definitely a trend in what girls like and what boys like. Our reasons for this differed. She claimed that there was no difference in the male and female brain at all. And that the only reason for these preferences is because society tells girls to like one thing and boys to like another. What struck me as odd was why she believed there were no differences. She had no evidence to support this, infact, I had evidence saying otherwise. There haven't only been studies on a psychological level, but on a biological level. Men and women's brains are different.(http://www.wisegeek.com/are-there-differences-between-the-male-and-female-brain.htm) She believed there were no differences not because of studies or evidence, but because she just simply wanted to believe that.
I'm big into evolution. So I like to think of things from an evolutionary perspective to get a better understanding of things. When I look at our primate ancestors, I can see that there are differences in the way females and males behave on a social level. They were born into a sex, and from the beginning shows social characteristics of their sex. They weren't pressured into it by parental encouragement, advertising, or peer pressure. In the simple primate life (excluding humans) males and females have certain roles they take to ensure the survival of their troop. This doesn't mean one is better than the other, people get that confused.
As in young monkeys and in young humans, we both show characteristics of our sex very early on. Girls are attracted to dolls, while boys trucks and mechanical things. Boys are more adventurous. One might argue that societies influence has already reached them at a young age. But I don't think so. At a young age of around 2-4 children are barely aware of their sex. I don't have anything to back this up but, I feel as if they would be too young to feel pressured into doing something girls or boys usually do.
I recently stumbled upon an article written about a study done on young rhesus monkeys and the results blew me away. Finally, some proof that we are drawn to certain toys and activities not because society pressured us to, but because our brains work in a different way so for whatever reason we find some toys and activities more appealing than others.
The study took 44 male monkeys and 44 female monkeys, and watched them play. They included certain gender specific toys, like dolls, balls, cooking pots, and trucks and certain gender neutral toys like a book and stuffed dog. The scientists then measured the time they played with each toy. They found that the males spent a significantly longer time playing with the boy toys than they did the girl toys. Likewise, the females spent a much longer amount of time playing with the girl toys. The males and females spent the same amount of time playing with the gender neutral toys. In a video of this you can see the female checking the dolls genital area, while the males were rolling the toy truck on the ground. (http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/108552)
Though I do think peer pressure and advertising pushes both genders to extreme of ultra-feminine and ultra-masculine behavior and looks, we are born with masculine and feminine behavior and preference. Back to this girl, she seemed to believe that any difference between a male and female meant inequality. She felt that any difference brought to light was sexism. This is not true, different does not equal unequal, it just means different!