Women and Men. The Differences.

[Grandpa]

Oh, great.

Within traditional gender development, it's generally devolved to this:

Women offer sex to get the nest.
Men offer the nest to get the sex.

Of course, with the increasing economic independence of women, the formula is getting skewed, and that's a good thing.

Another legacy holdover of traditional gender development:

Men engage in cooperation to get the prize (prey, harvest).
Women engage in competition to get the men.

That legacy comptetition-versus-cooperation mindset is undoubtedly fodder for a further discussion, but not me, not right now. And again, that doesn't hold true across the board. Men compete for available women. Women cooperative for mutual goals.

But I'm in a female-dominated profession, and I have heard on more than one occasion from female colleagues, "I'd much rather deal with men in business than women."

Hey, I'm egalitarian by nature, and statements like that have been jarring. But they're stated honesty, candidly, and experientially, so I have to assume there's something behind that apparent rejection of sisterhood. And I do have conclusions, but maybe for another posting someday.

 

[skimom2]

In my experience and in a general way, I've found that men and women think and see things differently. Neither is better, just different. What I'm not sure of is how much of that is hardwired and how much is due to different socialization.

And Grandpa, I'm one of those women who would rather work with men. Again, not sure how much is socialization, but women make me tired. Too much backbiting, too much personal info flying around ( I don't want to know THAT about anyone's husband other than my own), too many hurt feelings. Just do the job, get it over with, and don't take much too personally. I was raised with all brothers, an independently minded mother, and a dad who was a straight shooting, no nonsense, get-'er-done dad. There's no crying in baseball, no one said life is fair, etc.

 

[Kingunlucky]

On an average case.

I'd say women have waaaaay better idea of how to find things then men. I'm not sure the word for it but usually my mom, sister, and females I know in general are able to like recognize where things are. This doesn't go for everything of course and there are obvious exceptions.

But ya know? Cliched example of the fridge. Men can't find things in the fridge in front of them. That is a bit true for me and it's usually a woman who picks it right out. But truth be told I'm pretty terrible at finding things and doing stuff without being show directly.

 

[Kingunlucky]

As for folks saying no difference. I don't think that's exactly true.

It all comes down to personality obviously at the end of the day. You got your tough guys, tough gIRLS, sensitive souls in both camps, complex people and so on and so forth. But I'm sure there has to be some kinda ingrained mental traits both good and bad that are unique to both sexes.

Be that from conditioning of society or programmed instinct.

 

[jacobtlong]

As far as working goes... I'd be fine working with automatons.

I told a female employee to take out the trash. She responded with "You can't make me do that. That's a boy's job." I told her, "Actually, I can. It's an employee's job and right now you need to decide if you still are one."

She threw all the trash in the back of the building and walked out. I looked at my opening crew leader and asked if she could help me with the trash. She looked at me and said, "Nope, it's time for me to go. Besides I don't do trash."

Automatons, people. I'd be okay with that.

At home my dad and I take trash out. Not my mom. I don't think I've ever seen her take trash out. I don't even know what would happen if we asked her to. Or if it would be offensive if we did ask her to one day. At family get-togethers the men always volunteer for the trash disposal duties while the women clean dishes or tidy up inside. Strange ingrained behavior.

Women and men. Men and women. People. They all confuse me regardless of how you put it.

 

[Neesy]

Oh, great.

Within traditional gender development, it's generally devolved to this:

Women offer sex to get the nest.
Men offer the nest to get the sex.

Of course, with the increasing economic independence of women, the formula is getting skewed, and that's a good thing.

Another legacy holdover of traditional gender development:

Men engage in cooperation to get the prize (prey, harvest).
Women engage in competition to get the men.

That legacy comptetition-versus-cooperation mindset is undoubtedly fodder for a further discussion, but not me, not right now. And again, that doesn't hold true across the board. Men compete for available women. Women cooperative for mutual goals.

But I'm in a female-dominated profession, and I have heard on more than one occasion from female colleagues, "I'd much rather deal with men in business than women."

Hey, I'm egalitarian by nature, and statements like that have been jarring. But they're stated honesty, candidly, and experientially, so I have to assume there's something behind that apparent rejection of sisterhood. And I do have conclusions, but maybe for another posting someday.

I am coming from sort of an odd or uncommon background in that I worked with predominantly men from 1980 until 2001 (Canadian military) but when I did start working within a female-dominated profession (medical transcription) and I saw how back-biting and catty women can be in groups, it really bothered me a lot.

These women were also immigrants from the Philippines but the young Caucasians were just as bad to be honest.

Of course, by then there was also an age difference as most were aged 20s and 30s with maybe one or two in early 40s. I started the job at age 48.

But it seems to me that younger men are just not quite as macho as what I remember men being like in the past (again you have to factor in that guys I worked with in the past were basically pretty darn macho to start off with - joining the military would be one clue!)