If I had been a woman, I would have been eligable for financial aid for tuition in 2003, according to the nice financial aid lady. And the college is 58% women, or it was that year.
One advantage my husband has, that I don’t, is going to a bar, a sporting event, or other similar places by himself, and not getting hassled about it. If he walks into a bar on Monday night to watch Monday Night Football the others will just assume he is there to watch the game with other fans and have a few beers, no big deal. He can go to most any bar, take a seat, and watch the game, and have normal conversations.
If I was to walk into a bar on Monday night, the assumption would not be that I was just there to watch the game. Some would assume I was there to get picked-up. Some would assume I was there because I had a fight with my husband and wanted to do something crazy like to go a bar by myself to try and make my husband mad.
About half the people wouldn’t even talk to me, thinking I was a slut, or somehow up to no good. A quarter of them would talk to me, but they would only being doing so because they thought I was likely to go home with them. The last quarter might talk to me, but it would be a strained, strange conversation because they wouldn’t want me to think they were hitting on me. I wouldn’t be able to talk football with them.
I enjoy several male-dominated activities like going to the racetrack, playing poker, and target shooting. I have learned how to do these things by myself, but it requires a lot preparation to make sure I don’t put myself in a dangerous position. My husband can do any of these things by himself, without giving it a thought.
Grits has got it right. I just finished the book Into the Wild, which details the adventures of a kid who walked away from it all to live life as a vagabond - he’d do day labor for a week or two in some small town, then hitch a ride and move on. It’s a life that has a certain romantic charm (but I’m certain it’s not for me), but it’s not a life I could lead (at least, not without my own car). It’s just not safe for women to be hitchhiking and such alone. Granted, it’s probably not safe for men, either, but it’s considerably more dangerous for women. IMO, of course.
People, you’ve got it all wrong. The OP asks about inherent differences between the sexes. The patriarchy, differences in wages, different views of sex and sexuality, better hairstyles for women… those are all things that are a result of society; they aren’t inherent to people.
I can think of only a few things:
Males are physically larger and stronger than women. A point for men.
Women are better able to multi-task whereas men tend to focus on a single problem until completion. This could either be a point for women or men depending on the type of work you choose to go into, but I think most jobs in the post-automation age will require a person to be able to handle many problems at once. A tentative point for women?
Women can choose to have and raise a child without a partner; men can adopt or use a surrogate, but this is not going to be an avenue open to many men. If birth control were perfected, women would have an inherent reproductive freedom that men don’t have. Point for women.
Women tend to have fewer genetic diseases owing to the protection of the extra X gene and also suffer fewer health problems over the course of their life, with a resultant longer lifespan. Another point for women.
As far as “gross” things or elimination-based things go, we’re kind of even. Monthly periods cancel out unwanted erections, I think, and while men can eliminate more easily than women, they also have to let it all out in the open in bathrooms. I don’t think this category is important enough to make a real difference.
So it comes out more on the women’s side, it seems. If you add social inequality in, women come out way behind, but purely physically speaking it seems that women have more advantages than men. Of course, maybe I’m just biased, being a woman.
My psychology professor in college insisted that although women are better at doing several similar tasks, men are better at multi-tasking when tasks are fundamentally dissimilar. He cited some study where subjects were required to perform complex manual tasks with their hands while answering questions about politics ( or something along these lines, it’s been a long time). Apparently men fared significantly better than women, however, when tasked with either a) Carrying on two question sessions/conversations at the same time or b) Performing two manual tasks in parallel, women fared much better.
I looked around Google Scholar, but couldn’t find ANYTHING on this subject. I’d love to actually read this study, anybody know what I’m talking about?
Women in general tend to have a more “narrow” bell curve for a lot of quantifiable factors. Intelligence, specific abilities, etc. This is probably due to higher genetic stability, and has the double-edged implication that although a woman is less likely to be a genius, she’s also less likely to be dumber than dirt. I believe that’s a large part of the reason why a) Majority of renowned scientists, athletes, geniuses, doctors are men b) So many men are such idiots.
Generally speaking, women can find things that are lost in the home; men cannot. Mom knows where your lost socks, books, jacket, etc. are; dad does not. Hubby can spend an hour “looking” for his lost keys; wifey will be able to find them within minutes.
Women have some kind of reasoning (identification with the home?) that men lack. Feel free to disagree, but I have yet to meet a guy who can find his keys when they’re lost.
So, a plus for women.
To balance this out, men are allowed to marry women.
I don’t know if that applies to other people’s items though. A wife knows her husband a lot better than the husband knows himself, and as such, knows where he could put the keys within the house. Sometimes men (like my stepfather, for example) will be able to lose things so well that no woman can find them. He once left his keys behind a chicken in the freezer. He was unloading groceries and was still holding his keys when he put the chicken in the freezer, he put the keys down first, and then forgot. There’s no analyzing that type of behavior.
I completely disagree!! Maybe you are one of those lucky gals whose period is a breeze but I would gladly give up my periods for random erections. I already have to deal with spontenous wetness which I imagine is almost as annoying.
Men can go on a first date without having to worry about being raped by their date.
Men can get promoted to management positions without fear that they’ll be rejected because ‘he’ll just get pregnant and quit anyway.’
Men’s bodies are considered basically acceptable- they aren’t socially constrained to spend extra time every morning removing all body hair and repainting visible skin.
Men’s reproductive functions aren’t considered dirty.
Men can fully participate in any church they choose to join.
If a man is assaulted, he can report it to the police without having to prove that he didn’t deserve to be assaulted.
Men see themselves represented widely on television, in movies, and in athletics. (There’s a comic strip character who refuses to watch any movie which doesn’t include a scene in which two female, named characters have a conversation about something other than a man. When I checked my video collection, I was horrified at how few such movies I could find.)
Men are more than fairly represented in government, and can make laws protecting their interests.
Very few men are taught from their earliest childhood that their first duty is to graciously submit and obey.
Men are not expected to wear shoes that hobble them so they can’t run away.
But…but…if he could find them…then…ah, the hell with it.
In all seriousness, I get the point here. From self-observation I can say that, when I (as a member-carrying member of the Male faction) have lost something, it becomes difficult to detach my mind from focusing on the place where the item is “supposed” to be. For example, generally, when I come home, I will place my keys on top of the credenza-thingie right next to the door. If my hands are otherwise occupied (say I’m carrying groceries in addition to the keys), I will head to the kitchen, place the bags on the kitchen table, and set the keys down alongside them.
So, when I get ready to leave the house, the first thing I do is head to the credenza-thingie to get my keys. If they’re not there, I go to the kitchen table. Failing that, my mind’s natural reaction is to throw itself into a recursive loop of denial. “Well they must be on the credenza-thingie. You always put them on the credenza-thingie.” I checked it. They’re not there. “Hunh. You didn’t have groceries last night, but maybe you had something else; check the kitchen table.” We’re at the kitchen table. They’re not here. “That’s what I thought. So they’re on the credenza-thingie.” No. “…then they’re on the table.”
It’ll continue like that until I finally intervene and kick my mind over to considering other possibilities as to where the keys may be. Depending on my level of awareness (i.e., whether or not I just got up), this can quite literally take a few minutes.
Another consequence of male singlemindedness? Or something more sinister? You decide.
