Men and women more alike than different.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

Researchers are throwing cold water on the popular notion that men and women are from different planets, maintaining that the theories behind such claims are woefully out of date. Rosalind Chait Barnett, a senior specialist with the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., and Janet Shibley Hyde of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, conducted a sweeping review of classical theories that purport large differences between the sexes and concluded that they don't hold up against contemporary research findings. "We found that women and men are far more alike than they are different in ways that matter: motivation, values, and abilities."

Nevertheless, the idea that men and women are radically different has been tough to replace since it has been a driving force behind research on gender roles, work, and family for more than 50 years. It gives a tidy explanation for health problems and relationship issues among men and women who have multiple roles. Women who "try to do it all"--juggle career and family--are believed to pay the price in stress-related illnesses and strained family relations.

However, there's no evidence to support such claims, Barnett and Hyde argue. To the contrary, the researchers found a crop of new studies that show contemporary American men and women have a less narrow sense of self than people did in the sex-segregated 1950s, and...