Everywhere you look you'll find surveys and questionnaires （问卷） in magazines, newspaper articles, best-selling books, TV shows. . . all giving one clear message: women and men are different.

Clearly, we can't get along because we communicate too differently. We don't understand each other. Women think one thing, but men think another. A woman is willing to work together, but a man is competitive. Women are good communicators, and can relate to people well, while men are more driven by results. A woman can do several things at once, but a man prefers to do one task at a time. If you believe everything you read, women even have a stronger sense of smell and of touch. The list of differences goes on and on.

However, Dr. Janet S. Hyde claims （声称） that the differences between men and women are overstated. She reviewed 46 studies of gender （性别） differences, going back 20 years, and found that there are far more similarities than differences between men and women. In fact, Dr. Hyde's results show that there are very few differences in the way we think, act and communicate. What's more, she warns that claims of gender differences actually have a negative effect on women, both in the workplace and in their relationships with their husbands or boyfriends.

Girls also suffer the results of these claims. For example, girls studying in school are not always encouraged to think that they can succeed in math the same way that many boys are. This is because people often believe media claims that girls aren't as good at math as boys. Perhaps it's time to celebrate what brings us together, rather than focus on what divides us.