Welcome to 2021.
There may have been several setbacks all over the world for people to deal with (the pandemic, forest fires and protests being some of them) but we’ve kept advancing in ways which only the 21st century allows for.
The digital world is booming, we’re seeing a rise in innovative ideas at the workplace, more marginalised groups are being represented and equality among them is not a far away vision anymore. However, with all this talk of equality amongst social groups, we must ask ourselves if we are forgetting our differences which is, after all, what makes us unique. If for instance, we take the analogy of a melting pot v/s a salad bowl and apply it to the context of gender equality at the workplace, can we truly say that feminism expects men and women to be equally skilled at all areas? Let’s take a closer look.
Essentially, what made women and men so traditionally different was biology. Even today, the hormone oxytocin is secreted more in women, making them more associated with affiliation, bonding and (you guessed it!) motherhood. However, the classic male hormone testosterone is an oxytocin inhibitor, which makes men reject these very notions and take risks. What is interesting about testosterone, is that a rise in it’s levels makes a man physically aggressive, so that they want to fight the person on the other side. Thus, traditionally low testosterone levels in women is what keeps them relatively calm even during tense situations, making them classic negotiators while men tend to take business matters more personally.
Oxytocin is also what makes women better at dealing with people and forming social connections which often (but not always!) makes them more adept in HR related business activities. In contrast to this, men tend to possess a mentality which focuses on “protecting their space”- a kind of drive which helps in cutting out rivals or competition!
Let’s now compare intelligence.
Surely enough, there are no differences in the average IQ of men or women. However, there lies a remarkable difference in the distribution. While many women are closer to the average IQ, men possess many more smart as well as unintelligent individuals. Simply speaking, in a Hollywood high school context, the thick headed jock is more common than the superficial plastic!
Besides these, men and women possess many neurobiological differences which makes women remember more long term memory than men, who lean more towards being the impulsive kind, which also makes them forgetful. Thus, while it may be more common for women to back their arguments with reasoning, it is also common to find men forgetting the main point behind their argument or (at times) fumbling with their words.
While there are many such differences which supposedly make men and women “differently wired” there are more than just one exception to these norms in any given context today. It is important that we act according to what we believe is the right thing to do rather than looking at ourselves through the lens of what society wants us to be. This is so that at the end of the day we become a salad bowl of unique individuals and not social groups, after all!
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