# Why can't women read maps? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 19, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139 "2007-08-19T13:52:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jormundgondir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jormundgondir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jormundgondir)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/21 "2007-08-19T16:44:16Z")
On the question of why there are so few women chess masters, I recall that having been addressed in the book “Word Freak” by Stefan Fatsis, there regarding the relative dearth of women in the upper echelons of competitive Scrabble: one of the rare female masters interviewed in the book conjectured that men have more of an opportunity culturally to get obsessively focused on such mundane pursuits, because women tend to be expected to maintain families, households, and generally be “responsible,” which leaves them with less time and inclination to focus on a singular pursuit for hours every day. Indeed, many of the male Scrabble champs profiled in the same book practiced during every possible waking moment, seemed to have some serious “life balance issues”, and were still living in their mothers’ basements figuratively and sometimes literally. Of course that’s only one hypothesis, and the “math brain versus language brain” thing as well as cultural pressure in either direction probably still plays a role in basic aptitudes in the main population. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/22 "2007-08-19T16:51:38Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] …couldn’t find my ass with a ten man search party and have never been able to balance a checkbook. No, I’m not gay. [/QUOTE] Oh, honey. If you’re inviting ten men over to your house to search for your ass, you don’t have to tell us which side of the plate you bat from. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/23 "2007-08-19T17:02:50Z")
I read somewhere that women actually have better spatial senses and better geographic memories than men do (my wife is certainly better at those things than I am). The hypothetical explanation was that it was because women were gatherers and men were hunters. In hunter-gathering societies, women provide the majority of the food (something like 70%, IIRC). Women had to remember not just the physical lay of the land but how to find things again later. Men just had to follow a bison around and hope it fell off a cliff. It wasn’t important to remember where the last bison was. They just had to be able to focus on what was in front of them and not lose concentration. My theory is that’s why women always know where everything is located in the house and men never have a clue. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/24 "2007-08-19T17:05:02Z")
This book might help the OP: [Why Men Don’t Listen And Women Can’t Read Maps: How We’re Different and What To Do About It](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Listen-Women-Cant-Read/dp/0752846191/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-3314936-8671840?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187543022&sr=8-1). ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/25 "2007-08-19T17:10:19Z")
Female here. I can and do read maps. I’m a pretty good navigator on road trips, I’ll have you know. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/26 "2007-08-19T17:18:52Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Men just had to follow a bison around and hope it fell off a cliff. It wasn’t important to remember where the last bison was. They just had to be able to focus on what was in front of them and not lose concentration. My theory is that’s why women always know where everything is located in the house and men never have a clue. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Don’t forget that they had to know their way back to the cave with said bison after it fell off the cliff, or the whole exercise was for naught. Also the bison had a bad habit of not always falling off the same damn cliff, unlike the berry patch which was pretty much in the exact same place the gatherers left it yesterday. So the hunters had to find their way back from many different locations, the gatherers would tend to go to the same patches over and over again. My personal wag is most women have never been trained to read a map, and therefore are not comfortable with doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/27 "2007-08-19T17:32:50Z")
[QUOTE=Rick] :dubious: Don’t forget that they had to know their way back to the cave with said bison after it fell off the cliff, or the whole exercise was for naught. Also the bison had a bad habit of not always falling off the same damn cliff, unlike the berry patch which was pretty much in the exact same place the gatherers left it yesterday. So the hunters had to find their way back from many different locations, the gatherers would tend to go to the same patches over and over again. [/QUOTE] These were migratory cultures, not sedentary. It wasn’t always the same berry patch. They were following herds around. We’re not just talking about finding one’s way back to the camp, but remembering where that berry patch was last spring when the tribe last passed through this valley. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/28 "2007-08-19T17:39:33Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I read somewhere that women actually have better spatial senses and better geographic memories than men do (my wife is certainly better at those things than I am). The hypothetical explanation was that it was because women were gatherers and men were hunters. In hunter-gathering societies, women provide the majority of the food (something like 70%, IIRC). Women had to remember not just the physical lay of the land but how to find things again later. Men just had to follow a bison around and hope it fell off a cliff. It wasn’t important to remember where the last bison was. They just had to be able to focus on what was in front of them and not lose concentration. My theory is that’s why women always know where everything is located in the house and men never have a clue. [/QUOTE] I think that’s more than just your theory…I believe (and I don’t have a cite here, but I read about it in a book that is on this very issue), that women are better at finding things for just this reason (answers **fessie’s** question about finding the mayonnaise). Women are better at scanning a landscape and being able to note details from it than men are. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/29 "2007-08-19T19:47:50Z")
Either the blokes and Sheilas in Oz are truly different from the rest of us, or there’s some hogwash in the U. of Warwick’s study :dubious: . That’s my opinion. On the other hand, if you’d like another silly reason why men have better spatial reasoning, it’s because the spermatozoa have to swim thousands of microns upstream to find the egg, but all she has to do is sit there, polishing her tiny nails until Mr. Right knocks on the door. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/30 "2007-08-19T20:06:32Z")
I read some time ago that men tend to nagivate by vectors, women by landmarks. To answer the op: not only can I read maps, I produce a lot of maps in my work. Drafting work, traditionally a man’s field, has seen a rise in women technicians over the past several years, and I’ve found that women bring certain pluses to drafting - attention to detail being one of them. However, that’s not to say that male technicians lack that. Mapmaking seems to be a talent that some folks have, and some folks don’t. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/31 "2007-08-19T20:14:08Z")
If men, on average, _are_ better map readers, it could be because more young boys are taught to read maps than young girls. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/32 "2007-08-19T20:53:49Z")
L.A.M. Galea & D. Kimura, “Sex differences in route-learning,” _Personality and individual differences_, 1993, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 53-65. > [@](#): > > Past literature on map-learning tasks has generally inferred that males tend to use a geometric strategy, and females tend to use a landmark strategy to learn a map. However, none of the studies have controlled for possible effects of extra-map superior visual memory in females on their memory for landmarks, and few have probed the actual relation between accuracy of performance and geometric or landmark knowledge. This study investigated sex differences in strategies for route-learning, controlling for visual-item memory. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/33 "2007-08-19T20:55:01Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy] … and have never been able to balance a checkbook. [/QUOTE] What the heck is balancing a checkbook, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/34 "2007-08-19T21:02:25Z")
Balancing your checkbook is a method of verifying that your records (your checkbook register) match the bank’s records, as shown on your monthly bank statement. If they match, they “balance”. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/35 "2007-08-19T21:09:26Z")
Another map-reading female here, although I do admit to turning the map the direction I’m going. While I could figure it out regardless, it makes more sense to me when the map’s facing where I’m going. I also navigate via landmarks. Apparently this is a female trait. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/36 "2007-08-19T21:17:01Z")
I second what **Audrey Levins** said. I’m more than capable of reading a map, but I also turn it to acclimate myself. I use landmarks, too. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/37 "2007-08-19T21:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=T\_SQUARE] If men, on average, _are_ better map readers, it could be because more young boys are taught to read maps than young girls. [/QUOTE] I remember that day in school. The teacher shooed all the girls out of the room, telling them it was going to be some kind of sex-ed class for boys. When the girls were all gone, the teacher said in a hushed voice, “Now to learn about maps.” ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/38 "2007-08-19T22:38:57Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] Either the blokes and Sheilas in Oz are truly different from the rest of us, or there’s some hogwash in the U. of Warwick’s study :dubious: . That’s my opinion. [/QUOTE] Straight Australian female here, fresh from eight years duty as the in-car navigator in the relationship. As I didn’t get my licence until I was 25, I was most often the passenger and therefore the one who read the map. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/39 "2007-08-19T22:59:06Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] I remember that day in school. The teacher shooed all the girls out of the room, telling them it was going to be some kind of sex-ed class for boys. When the girls were all gone, the teacher said in a hushed voice, “Now to learn about maps.” [/QUOTE] How utterly bizzare. Or was that a whoosh? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139/40 "2007-08-19T22:59:48Z")
I never really jump in on these ‘gender’ threads, but I think it would be a better discussion if there’s not a discernible incompetence, but more of an inefficiency. Take my me and my wife’s situation. We’re classically male and female in a lot of areas. Now, I understand, as much as everyone else, that we’re both equally human, but there just are certain things I’m better at than she, and vice versa, in a very stereotypical way. Just because it’s stereotypical, doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate. I have excellent spacial reasoning (if I do say so myself), where as, she’s mostly at an utter loss. However, when it comes to multi-tasking, i’m a dummy and she’s got me beat. To sum it up, it’s not that she couldn’t read a map, it’s that she knows I’m more efficient at reading it, so the duty goes to me by default. The existence of this particular stereotype might lend some credibility to the fact our male & female brains are genetically wired different, but usually where there’s a strength, there’s a weakness to pay for it. I think in the end, female and male strengths compliment each other so much, that it almost seems like we evolved together like puzzle pieces. And, as anything in this world, there’s no black and white, and sometimes the colors are even flopped. Cool. I don’t like to see women get defensive in these threads, because I really admire how my wife’s mind works. Sometimes I marvel at the way she attacks certain situations, while I would have completely flubbed it. I think we, as individuals, naturally are attracted to not necessarily opposites of ourselves, but compliments. I do have to say though, I kick her ass at map reading and chess.YMMV 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-women-read-maps/416139.md?page=3)