Evolution designed males and females to be different so that they could both contribute great gifts for life.
Males and females are different primarily for the continuation of their species. Females have the ability to conceive, give birth and nurture children. Men contribute their genetic qualities, usually earn more money and therefore, can contribute more financially. Women have more resilience and stamina, and men, generally, have more brute strength and larger bodies. There are of course exceptions to all such general rules. And no differences in sex or gender should justify discrimination against either sex.
Men can nurture, and if they could not, few women would be attracted to them. Women can hunt, work mechanically, do outdoor hauling and also do most any indoor factory or office job. That men’s work typically pays more is well known. This is due to historic devaluation of a woman’s worth, rather than being based on what each contributes. Both contribute very vital qualities.
The reasons why men and women, boys and girls are different, is because nature selects for all qualities to be utilized in one way or another. In most species division of labor is found. The human species just takes this farther by socially exaggerating some features.
As Darwin noted, it is each small change and variation that adds to the over all finished product in a species.
Men evolved to have more interest in variety of sexual partners. This is not inherent justification for “cheating” but the reason why it so often occurs. Women, being the ones who require stability and security for the first few years of a baby’s life, are more naturally designed to want monogamy. As with all the “rules” that nature designed, there is on-going variations in this theme. There are men who will be monogamous and steadfast, and there are women who will play the field.
Men and women are different, in essence, so that they meet one another’s needs. Men typically like to tinker and find answers to any problem. Women like to validate and acknowledge any feelings about the problem in order to fix it. More women are therapists, and more men are mechanics. More women like to participate in social grooming, such as nail salons, spas, and beauty shops. A man will just want a decent haircut. Women, in sexist cultures, are not as free to be sexually assertive without being labeled as one of the many thousands of bad names meaning “trashy” that sexism has added to language. Men are usually exempted from this value judgement.
In cultures where men and women are restricted and stereotyped, suffering occurs. Both men and women who exploit one another, or who interact as though every action is based on power, lose the highest quality of being alive, which is to learn that cooperation is more effective than exploitation. Sharing, appreciating and being appreciated allows fuller lives. This is true not just between men and women, but in all relationships with living systems, organisms, more than human community and planets.
Anyone who has spent any time near a preschool or kindergarten has witnessed the dramatic innate difference between boisterous boy play and connecting, doll, tea party and dress up interests that girls display. Both play games, but boy’s games usually result in some sort of contest, and more rough and tumble contact, whereas girl’s games are slightly more weighted toward the social sort of role play civilization requires.
Hormones, especially during the teen years result in huge differences between the sexes. Males are at a time where they are driven to prove themselves, be aggressive, toy with violence, sports and rebellion. Females are interested in their social status, popularity, fussing with appearance and rebelling mostly in how they dress, who they spend time with, what music they like and what hobbies and sports they are drawn toward. For both genders at this age, the opposite sex is extremely fascinating. Nature invented this, not to make parents crazy, but to allow kids experimentation for finding their place to belong.
Differences between men and women give the world contest and context. A great drawback for sociological evolution results when equality minded crusaders wish to make no distinction between male and female. Should everyone be treated as the same, given that women make good presidents and judges and men make good cooks and home-makers? This is more complex, due to sexism, than it appears.
The thinking is that if boys were simply given more dolls, tea sets and dance outfits; and if girls were given more guns, tanks and cars that children would grow up more equitably. But encouraging against a person’s nature is not the answer.
Changing outward props does not change biology. Rather than trying to re-shape nature, it is better for the survival of all species that instead of devaluing the roles of males, culture needs to add value to the roles of child rearing, diplomacy, emotional honesty and more. Men and women are different because nature is just a whole lot more intelligent than mere mortals. When people stop seeing one sex as being inferior, the differences will be appreciated.
There is still a great deal of sexism in the world. It will not go away by raising girls to shoot animals from helicopters, or by making boys learn to love fashion. It will only be a fairer world when no matter what a person contributes, those gifts are valued.
