Yes I think both genders should be treated equally. However, it is not until recent times women were afforded with equal opportunity and/or encouragement. We are still not even treated equally today.
Anyway, I think it'll take a long time for fields to equal out. Hence, why some male things are male dominated at the moment, as there are lagging effects for historical discrimination. And also, I think some differences between genders are socially construed. From birth, society and media encourage and foster different qualities based on your gender. Boys are encouraged to be active and hands on. Girls to be passive, dainty and creative. And this reinforced environmental learning can only cause differences in the genders' brain. I know that sex is biological, but gender is a societal construct.
So I believe every should have equal, rights and opportunity no matter what the differences are between us. Hell, label me a feminist whatever, label me whatever you want. I just think everyone should be judged on individual merit and not type cast as a "women", "this ethnicity" blah blah.
I struggle to see any real difference between the two notions.
I repeat my earlier posting in this thread:
Right down to every last gene the sexes are unique: (XX,XY chromosome)
Studies have proven that differences are neurological and genetic in origin and are highly resistant to change by the influences of culture. Men and women are the same the world over!
Socializing: Whether tennis or cards: women often use the event as an excuse for fellowship and pleasant conversation. For men, the name of the game is conquest.
A man's world is focused outside the home in work and recreation. A women's world is strongly focused within the home and on family.
Self-esteem: Men develop the evidence of their worthiness primarily from their jobs, being respected in business, profession or craft. Women, and especially homemakers, depend primarily on the romantic relationship with their husbands for ego support. This explains why the emotional content of a marriage is usually more important to women and why the little tokens of affection are appreciated more by wives, who obtain esteem from these expressions of love and generosity.
Women need continual reassurance from their husband that they are loved, needed and valued. Because men do not need this kind of reassurance from their wives, they often fail to see their wife's need for it and neglect to give it. The wife then develops a feeling of being "unloved and unvalued", which the husband will assure is unfounded.
Women tend to remember anniversary dates and birthdays. Men tend to remember dates like when the mortgage payment is due and feel their wife gets "overly upset" if they forget the anniversary.
Mothers become emotionally attached to their children prior to birth by the virtue of carrying the child in her body. Men do not become emotionally bonded to the child for several months after the birth when the infant begins to smile, respond and interact with him.
Sexual arousal: Men are visually oriented, caring less about the romantic component or personal identity. Men can easily separate love and sex. She is attracted not to a photograph of an unknown model or by a handsome stranger, but to a particular man with whom she has entered into an emotional relationship. Women usually combine love and sex.
Men do not have as strong a desire and need for stability, security and enduring relationships as women do.
Women experience emotional influences that men do not because of the reproductive capacity: (cycles, pregnancy, lactation, menopause)
At a birthday party of five year olds, its not usually the girls who pull hair, throw punches or smear each other with food.
The play habits of young girls is almost exclusively in real life domestic situations, playing house, school etc. In contrast, young boy's play is usually in the fantasy world, blasting Martians with a laser gun to save the world.
In a time of crisis, women tend to react with reference to their feelings. Men tend not to react with reference to feelings but with deducted thought and reason.
In our material society, we place a higher value on the quality of being a "rational calculator" for it is this quality which is necessary for success in business and making money. Yet this quality is of little value for the happiness of the home. So while the man may be better equipped to lead and support the family, it is the woman who is better equipped to keep the family itself happy and emotionally healthy. The sexes are equal, but different.
Women are usually credited with possessing "mothers intuition" in regard to not just her children but all personal relationships. She may not be able to explain it, but she has a feeling about the situation that the man does not. She is usually right! Yet while she may be single-handedly responsible for sensing the situation, the man can usually chose the most appropriate course of action.
Husbands and wives have qualities the other does not. Each has qualities the other needs. The two are one flesh, a unit, incomplete without the other. Society places much greater value on the masculine qualities. This has driven many women to feel "unfulfilled" in the home environment. Many women, being influenced by society and the images of TV, do not feel valued unless they are working outside the home for money. They would feel ashamed to be "just a housewife".
School: Boys tend to excel girls in math and science subjects. Girls tend to excel boys in English and arts subjects.
Women possess a strong "maternal instinct" that men do not.
Is this stereotyping? Absolutely! Of course there are always going to be people who fall out of expected categories. There are six billion of us after all. But as a general rule I think it points as a realistic guide.With a really bad Maths analogy, 2
x is equal to 6
x divided by 3
This doesn't mean that men and women shouldn't be afforded
equal opportunity, which is really just common human morality.
