Politics and Society

The information on gender differences has long been conflicting. Specific research, scientists, and groups go back and forth over the issue of gender equity of the brain. To be quite honest I don’t know which side to believe. Pinker argues that equality of the male and female brains does not necessarily imply that they are the same. He describes differences to exist without question, but that these differences do not make one gender “better� than the other rather than serve as counterparts to one another. Cultures and mammals around the world show a regular pattern of male dominance and protection and female nurturing and childrearing. This argument, however, often sparks a lot of controversy as well, especially among feminist groups. Just because a women is naturally less aggressive, more nurturing, and overall better equipped for caring for children does not mean that she must be confined to that role. Just because someone is good at arguing does not mean that they have to be a lawyer. The topic of gender differences has actually come up in another one of my classes recently and a piece of information I found interesting was that males that had lower amounts of testosterone than average males actually had higher IQs and females that had higher levels of testosterone than average females had higher IQs. This may point us back to thinking that there really isn’t a real difference between the male and female brain; even though many researchers often cite hormones as the main cause for these gender differences.

I see a lot of this controversy showing up in politics today. With women such as Nancy Pelosi and Hilary Clinton potentially assuming roles of unprecedented female power they are receiving a lot of criticism from their peers and the public. After reading Pinker’s chapter on gender, however, it sounds like those qualities that are innate to women may actually prove extremely beneficial to them. The natural verbal and communication skills that a female possesses may actually make a woman like Nancy Pelosi, very good at being Speaker of the House. There has never been a woman in this position, and she may in fact, excel at it. Other characteristics of women such as being less impulsive, less aggressive, better at reading facial expressions and body language, more empathetic, and better at perceiving underlying or implied messages may be characteristics of a very good leader. A poll done on CNN was released today showing Hilary Clinton leading the race for the democratic nominee for President with 33% support. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/20/2008.poll/index.htmlThis is not to say that because men do not innately possess these qualities that they are not good at these positions it will just be interesting to see the difference in styles. Again, this goes back to the analogy just because some is good at arguing doesn’t mean they will make a good lawyer. The women may potentially flop in their positions. We cannot use gender to predict how these women will handle these positions (if elected) but by all accounts of the female characteristics they are naturally equipped to do well and hopefully they will.