Before explaining variances between genders, it is essential to differentiate between the terms gender and sex. The terms sex and gender had been used interchangeably for centuries. In 1949 a French author, Simone de Beauvoir in her book (The second sex) defined the terms sex and gender differences. She mentioned, “One is not born, but becomes a woman” (as cited in Butler, 1986, p.35). Generally, a person’s sex is determined by his/her biological and genetic state. Males and females are both born with the same 46 chromosomes except for the fact that a pair of sex chromosomes differ in males and females. A pair of XX sex chromosomes determine a female’s sex, while a pair of XY sex chromosomes define a male’s gender (Butler, 1986). However, gender refers to the social and cultural state of each sex in society. The concept of gender is mostly defined by those behaviors, personality traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male (Butler, 1986). A person’s sex assigned at birth may not always correspond with his/ her gender in this case the person is known as transgender (Butler, 1986). Transgender people may bear with male sex chromosomes but their characters, social interactions, and other gender identities work like a female or vice versa.
Gender differences have been the subject of research in psychology and other fields for several years. These studies show that despite significant biological dissimilarities men and women tend to display different behaviors. To avoid conflict and misunderstanding in social interactions it is essential for every individual to know each gender’s natural and cognitive differences and be able to treat people based on their natural differences. This research paper describes gender differences in personality, communication style, and brain based on scientific research.
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Empirical experiments and surveys demonstrate that men and women typically display different personalities. Psychological “studies consistently reveal that males are more aggressive than females both physically and verbally” (Parkash & Flores, 1985, p.2). The reason behind males’ aggressive personalities can be cultural aspects. From an early age male aggression is considered completely normal, whereas girls are trained to think, “They may not behave in certain ways and directly punished for aggressive behavior, that actively discourages them from displaying aggression” (Parkash & Flores, 1985, p.2). Psychologically, this trend encourages males to act more aggressively than females. Moreover, from a biological perspective, the level of testosterone (a hormone that activates the subcortical areas of the brain to produce aggression) in males is higher than in females which makes men behave more aggressively (Zaidi, 2010). In general, women are more likely to avoid hostility and conflict than men. “More women value the development of altruistic, reciprocal relationships, which by definition require empathizing. In contrast, more men value power, politics, and competition” (Zaidi, 2010, p.7). Therefore, men can be referred to as tough-minded, risk-prone, and assertive gender, while women as agreeable, altruistic, and warm gender.
Individuals’ behaviors are highly influenced by their ability to handle or express their emotions. The concept of emotion simply indicates the extent to which one expresses anger, joy, fear, disgust, and sadness. Psychologically men and women present dissimilar emotions. Research studies indicate that “women usually experience a higher level of emotions, in particular, positive emotions and internalizing negative emotions such as sadness and anxiety”; for instance, mothers tend to express emotions that are more positive and make the family delighted rather than negative and sad feelings (Guidice, 2015, p. 752). Men in contrast, “express greater levels of anger than women” (Guidice, 2015, p. 257). Because anger is referred to as masculine behavior, men easily express their anger and even use physical violence when they are angry. A research finding shows that people tend to present different levels of emotions when they are in public. Maccoby and Jacklin's (1974) experimental study shows that women were unlikely to demonstrate their anger in others’ presence; however, in solitary state women express the same level of anger as men (as cited in Parkash & Flores, 1985). Men, on the other hand, expressed an indifferent level of anger in both circumstances (Parkash & Flores, 1985). Overall, women are emotionally unstable, while men are cold-hearted and emotionally stable.
Men and women vary in verbal and nonverbal communication. Giudice (2015) states in his article that, “females enjoy a general advantage in communication skills, both in the verbal domain and in the production and decoding of nonverbal displays” (p.6). In fact, men use only the left hemisphere of their brain while communicating; yet, female brains function more efficiently by engaging “emotions and feelings to aid the productivity of their language” (Zaidi, 2010, p.7). Therefore, women perform better in communication and verbal fluency tasks. It can be a reason for occupying females for jobs that require verbal and articulating skills such as meeting planners, secretaries, and teaching positions. Men in contrast, usually communicate efficiently, direct, and based on a clear purpose (Giudice, 2015). Though women happen to ask a lot of questions, men are more likely to solve problems. As a matter of fact, women are more interested in analyzing a problem rather than solving that. Overall, “males tend to communicate more assertively”, and direct, while females tend to speak more “affiliative” and descriptively. (Giudice, 2015, p.754). Despite, all these differences in male and female communication styles, each of them is equally advantageous and useful in its own way. Sometimes it is necessary to speak clearly, directly, and to the point; however, other times we may need to analyze things with details.
Gestures and body language convey half of the message throughout the communication. Men and women tend to covey different meanings when they use nonverbal language. For example, eye aversion seems perfectly common for men, though for women eye aversion simply shows disrespect and less attention (Guidice, 2015). Men rarely make eye contact, and long-lasting eye contact conveys the message of hostility and opposition, while it is usual for women to keep eye contact until the end of the conversation (Guidice, 2015). In a discussion, women nod just to show that they listen and pay attention to the speaker whether they agree or disagree. Men, in contrast, nod only if they agree (Guidice, 2015). Moreover, women not only use a lot of facial expressions but also can understand them better than men (Guidice, 2015). According to Wingenbach studies women show and determine facial emotions faster and more accurately than men (as cited in Guidice, 2015). Thus, while communicating with men and women these differences have to be considered.
Psychological researches indicate significant gender differences in lying behavior. Jung and Vranceanu (2017) exercised an ultimatum game experiment to investigate lying behavior in men and women. This experiment examined pairs of (woman, woman), (woman, man), and (man, man). The findings of this study suggest that men tend to state the largest lies when paired with women; however, the frequency of lying is similar in mixed groups compared to homogenous groups. On average, whatever the gender of the partner is, the amount of lies submitted by men is higher than the number of lies submitted by women. In general, women are more prone than men to state an “altruistic white lie,” causing a loss for themselves for the benefit of the receivers; however, men tend to tell selfish lies more often than women do.
“The male and the female brains show functional and biochemical differences in all stages of life” (Zaidi, 2010, p.1). Varieties of studies confirm that male brains are about 10% larger than female brains and weigh 11-12% more than female brains but the stereotype that men are smarter than women is not accurate (Zaidi, 2010). In fact, a female brain reaches maturity one or two years before boys (Zaidi, 2010). Men’s larger brain size is due to their larger physical structure of men. Males’ larger muscle mass and body size require more neurons to control them (Zaidi, 2010). In spite of differences in size, both sexes are equal in intelligence. Male and female brains have the same capabilities but tend to operate differently.
Men and women use different parts of the brain to encode memories, sense emotions, recognize faces, solve certain problems, and make decisions (Zaidi, 2010). The brains of women process verbal language simultaneously in the two sides of the frontal brain; however, the male brain tends to process it on the left side only (Zaidi, 2010). Male brains separate language, on the left, and emotions on the right, which may be the reason that male-oriented brains, hardly express feelings. Nevertheless, the female’s emotions are in both hemispheres (Zaidi, 2010). It helps the female brain to express feelings easily. Biologically, men seem to think with their grey matter, which is full of active neurons; however, women think with white matter, which consists more of connections between the neurons (Zaidi, 2010). In this way, a woman's brain is a bit more complicated in setup, but those connections may allow a woman's brain to work faster than a man's (Zaidi, 2010). “Men relied on just one small area on the left side of the brain to complete the task, while the majority of women used areas in both sides of the brain”; therefore, men can focus on one task at a time only, while women can handle multi tasks simultaneously (Zaidi, 2010, p.7).
In conclusion, if there are variances in each gender’s appearance there have to be differences in the way each gender behaves. The history of differences in gender goes back to labor division when human beings decided to divide labor between genders. They divided laborers based on their abilities. As men are physically strong and able to focus well they started working out and hunting. Based on the perception that women have an advantage in multitasking, they preferred to do house chores because house chores require multitasking skills. As society developed, the idea that women should do house chores and men work outside has not changed much in some parts of the world. However, in countries where women work outside they are mostly occupied with the jobs that best suit their abilities or jobs that both women and men can perform equally. The fact that there are significant differences between genders does not express that one gender is superior to another gender. As there is more than one way of getting the same outcome each gender can be different but have the same outcome. Every gender’s performances are appreciable and worthy in their own ways. As it is a short research paper, it does not include the effect of technology on gender differences. Further research on how gender differences are influenced by social media and technology will be interesting.
References
- Butler, J. (1986). Sex and Gender in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex. Yale French Studies. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4469291/
- Giudice, D, M. (2015). Gender Differences in Personality and Social Behavior. ResearchGet. Retrieved From https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274956064
- Jung, S., & Vranceanu, R. (2017). Experimental Evidence on Gender Differences in Lying Behaviour. Revue économique,68(5), 859-873. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/90013493
- Prakash, V., and Flores, C, R. (1985). A Study of Psychological Gender Differences: Applications For Advertising Format'. Association for consumer research. Retrieved from http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/6390/volumes/v12/NA-12
- Zaidi, Z. (2010, April). Gender Differences in Human Brain. AnatomyJournal. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228549134_
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