A major discussion at the very centre of the gender debate, asks: why are men and women different?
Are they different because we tell them to be different? Through toys in childhood, TV in adolescence, and a continual bombardment of gender norms from society, our media, our family, our friends, from everyone.
Is our gender shaped through society, through ‘social constructivsm’?
Alternatively -
Are our gender preferences innate?
Are we born masculine or feminine; born with our gendered thinking, like we are born with our sexuality?
Are the preferences, behaviours and temperaments of men and women, part of our biology? And if so, are they immutable?
So many questions.
Well, a new study from 2018 has reopened the debate.
Showing that the more equal and wealthy a society, the more men and women grow apart in their behaviour.
That’s right.
The wealthier and more equal the country, the *more* its men engage in risk taking behaviour, and the more altruistic its women become, for example.
It’s an annoying spanner in the works for the social constructivists, and feminists, who insist we are all the same blank slates – and are simply brainwashed, or coloured in, by society.
But are we?
What do you think?
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Scientific American https://tinyurl.com/bnwx5xk9
Study https://tinyurl.com/23twch9c
Images by Dev Asangbam and Angshu Purkait from Unsplash