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I'm From Earth, Thanks Mate.

'The wonderful thing about nature and providence is that no conflict between the sexes can occur as long as each party performs the function prescribed for it by nature.' Adolf Hitler.

From the moment children are born into our culture they are treated differently according to their gender. One study examined parents interacting with their 20 - 24 month old children. It found that boys were more likely to be left alone in play or to be joined by parents whereas girls were more likely to be verbally criticised or praised. Parents responded positively to boys engaged in playing with blocks and negatively to them if playing with dolls. Girls received positive reactions when they played with dolls, asked for help, watched television or following parents around but negative response for manipulating objects, running, jumping and climbing. Is it any wonder that people in our society find themselves artificially divided by such a triviality as gender? Here are some of the most damaging gender stereotypes and the evidence against them.

Source:

Beall, Anne E, Sternberg, Robert J. (1993). The Psychology Of Gender. New York: Guildford Press.

Does the 'patriarchial' behaviour of apes prove that humans are meant to be male dominated?

Examination of dominance behaviour among a wide variety of baboon societies indicates that this behaviour is learned, not biologically determined. Comparison of various baboon societies shows that dominance heirarchies among these primates is a learned response to situations in which space, cover and food are limited. They do not appear in habitats where food is more plentiful and predators less of a menace. And if dominance behaviour is a learned phenomenon among non-human primates, then it is more than likely learned among humans - a response to social factors rather than biology.

Studies of other varieties of apes have shown:

- Among the ruffled lemur, the male tends the nest while the female forages for food.

- Among the New World monkeys, males directly care for offspring in half of all species; often the male is the primary caregiver, carrying the infant on his back and sharing food with it.

- In a rare study of a monogamous species of night monkey, an observer found that during one infant's first week of life, the mother carried it 31% of the time, the father 51% of the time, and a juvenile member of the troop the remaining time.

Sources:

Sayers, Janet. (1982). Biological Politics. London: Tavistock Publications.

Tavris, Carol. (1992). The Mismeasure of Woman. New York: Touchstone Books.

Are men naturally more aggressive because of testosterone?

Examining the studies done, Anne Fausto-Sterling has found there is 'no reliable correlation' between testosterone and male aggression. Testosterone is only one part of a complex interacting system of hormones that both women and men share, and this system is profoundly affected by social factors. One study on women and testosterone, professional women had slightly higher concentrations of the hormone than housewives. However, housewives report higher levels of stress, and stress reduces testosterone levels.

It has also been argued that studies performed on male rats demonstrate a link between intermale aggression and testosterone. However, these studies relied on placing rats in unnatural environments and electrocuting them. And studies on gerbils and hamsters how shown the females to be just as aggressive as the males.

Sources:

Denfeld, Rene. (1995). The New Victorians. St Leonards: Allen and Unwin Pty Ltd.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. (1985). Myths Of Gender. New York: Basic Books Inc Publishers.

Are women naturally more nurturing?

In examination of emotional differentiation, Barbara Risman compared personality traits of single fathers, single mothers and married parents. If biological predisposition creates differences between men and women, the fathers should differ from mothers in baby care skill and nurturing talents, regardless of marital status. What she found was that having responsibility for childcare was strongly related to 'feminine' traits such as nurturance and sympathy, as being female was. The single men who were caring for children were more like mothers than like married fathers. And these males were not an unusual group of particularly nurturant men. They had primary care of their children for circumstances beyond their control, such as widowhood or the wife's lack of interest in shared custody.

Source:

Tavris, Carol. (1992). The Mismeasure of Woman. New York: Touchstone Books.

Are men innately stronger than women?

Studies on the Manus of the Admiralty Islands showed that they had no Western-style physical differences between the gender at all in childhood, and adults were described by observers as having broad shoulders and chest, heavily muscled limbs and little subcutaneous fat. Similarly, Geoffrey Gorer's work on the Balinese in the thirties showed them to lack Western-style gendered physique. Adults were similar height and had broad shoulders and narrow hips. They had no body hair or breasts - children sucked their fathers' nipples as well as their mothers. Males living in the traditional way did little heavy work, and consequently had little musculature. However, Balinese men working as dock coolies for Europeans developed the musculature associated with masculinity in Western society. Apparently 'obvious' gender differences in strength can therefore be shown to be related to physical activity on the part of the individual, rather than innate superiority or inferiority of physique.

Source:

Oakley, Ann. (1972). Sex, Gender and Society. Melbourne: Sun Books.

Do men and women use their brains differently?

One of the most common arguments for gender difference is brain polarisation theory - the idea that females and males use their minds differently. The originator of this theory, Jerre Levy argued that women retain a capacity for verbal tasks in both hemispheres. When verbal tasks in women 'spill over' to the right side of the brain, they interfere with the right hemisphere's ability to perform spatial tasks. Men, on the other hand, have highly specialised brain halves - the left side confining its activities solely to verbal problems, the right side to spatial ones. Yet most follow-up testing of this hypothesis has shown no sex difference at all, and in order to show any differences at all, large samples must be used, indicating that differences within the sexes are more significant than those between the sexes.

Additionally, Hyde and Linn's studies have shown that formerly significant gender differences in verbal, spatial and mathematical are rapidly fading. Reviewing 165 studies of verbal ability, representing tests of 1,418,899 people, they found that there were no difference in vocabulary, writing, anagram and reading comprehension skills in the United States of America. Analysis of 100 studies of mathematical performance, representing the testing of 3,985,682 students, they found that of all analysed criteria, gender differences were the smallest. In samples of the general population, women slightly outscored men, while men slightly outscored women in selected samples of precocious individuals. And when spatial ability studies were examined it was found few had gender differences. Of the studies that did, the magnitude was small, and that there was greater variation within each gender than between them. Concluded one psychologist, 'The observed differences are very small, the overlap [between males and females] large, and abundant biological theories are supported with very slender or no evidence.'

Source:

Tavris, Carol. (1992). The Mismeasure of Woman. New York: Touchstone Books.

Are gender roles universal?

Quite simply, no. Among the Arapesh of New Guinea the ideal person (man or woman) is gentle, responsive, unaggressive and material. A child is regarded as being shaped in the mother's womb by repeated unions of father and mother, and childcare is shared by both parents. Similarly, the Mbuti pygmies have a social structure in which the role of biological sex as a determinant of social role seems negligible. Both take part in hunting and gathering, which are the main activities on which the tribe depends. They also share political decisions and have the same social status, and both care for children. The Mbuti language distinguishes between gender only in terms of parenthood - there are words for 'mother' and 'father' but not 'boy', 'girl', 'woman' or 'man'.

But among the Mundugumor (also of New Guinea) both men and women are seen as aggressive, harsh and violent. Both genders are regarded as sexually aggressive, and throughout life there is much antagonism between the sexes.

And in the Tchambuli society, gender roles are sharply polarised - in the reverse order of Western notions. Women supervise economic activities, work together in bantering camaraderie, are unadorned, and are seen as more actively sexed. Men arrange ceremonies and dances to entertain the women, are distrustful of each other and given to catty remarks, are self-conscious, adorn themselves with feathers and centre their emotional lives around the women.

Sources:

Broom, L. (1973). Sociology. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.

Oakley, Ann. (1972). Sex, Gender and Society. Melbourne: Sun Books.

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