The two opposite sexes differ in their behavior, worldview and values. These differences are explained by gender characteristics. What are the gender characteristics of the behavior of men and women?
By gender we mean a social concept, that is, a person as a social unit of society. This is not due to its biological differences and the anatomical structure of women and men. These are characteristics that describe the differences between two groups in society that have qualities characteristic of a given group of people. Men and women behave in ways consistent with gender roles. That is, they conform to the norms and expectations of these roles.
Gender has always been relevant. Thus, for violating the behavior prescribed for the weaker sex in 1979, women were executed during the reign of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Types of gender behavior
The gender role is instilled through upbringing and education; it can be performed by a person, violated, accepted or rejected. There is also gender identity - this is a person’s internal sense of self, belonging to a certain class.
People who do not feel like the gender they are have other characteristics of the opposite gender. When a man and a woman are formed, principles, behavior patterns and requirements are tied and imposed on them.
- Compliance. A person lives as the people around him and the media tell him. He is told that there is a big difference between a man and a woman in many areas of life, so he accepts this statement as the norm, the truth and meets expectations. He submits to the system, gives in, although he disagrees with something, he agrees.
- Approval, internalization. A person himself recognizes established gender norms and behaves as expected in society.
- Identification. A person behaves simply by repeating, copying other people; he really wants to acquire the characteristic features of the gender that he is.
Scientists have always tried to prove the difference between the two opposite sexes. Starting the study from the very beginning, when men fought for food for their families, and women took care of children and kept the hearth.
So A. Gesel established gender characteristics of the behavior of men and women:
- Girls have a large vocabulary and clarity of speech, but are inferior to men in intelligence.
- Women have better perception and attentiveness to various elements, men have better technical abilities.
- Women are much more emotional, they are sensitive, responsive, anxious, empathic, diligent, diligent and sociable. A man is rational, firm, authoritative, dispassionate, threatening, active, withdrawn, silent.
- It is easy for a man to adapt to changes in activity and quickly change directions to another. It is easier for girls to start communicating with people; they are very sensitive to failures in their personal lives and at work.
Gender differences: male and female brains
Books, Library » Man and Woman » Gender Differences
© John Medina
Fragment of the book by John Medina. Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain. - M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2014.
Did you know that 26 minutes of sleep can improve your productivity by 34%? That the brain does not stop its activity during sleep and is even more active than during periods of wakefulness? That men and women perceive reality and make decisions very differently? We know very little about how our brain functions, and we do not take into account the peculiarities of its work in our daily life and professional activities. Meanwhile, such knowledge can help us work more productively, remember more, learn better and conduct effective negotiations and presentations.
The results of one experiment can be summed up in these words: the man is a cool dude, and the woman is a bitch. During the experiment, four groups of subjects, consisting of an equal number of men and women, were asked to evaluate the professional success of an airline assistant vice president invented by three researchers. Each group was given a brief description of the responsibilities of the vice president, but the first group was also told that the vice president was male. They were asked to rate the candidate's competence and ability to win them over. The second group was told that the vice president was a woman. Her ability to win people over was highly rated, but her competence was not. All test factors were the same; the only variable was gender.
The third group was told that the vice president was a male superstar, a brilliant professional with a meteoric career. The fourth group was also told that the vice president was a superstar, but only a female one who followed the express route to a leadership position. As in the first case, the third group rated the man as “highly competent” and “able to win over.” The female superstar was also rated as "highly competent" but "unlikable."
Participants described her with words such as “unfriendly.” Like I said, the man was great and the woman was a bitch.
Gender discrimination still plagues people in the real world. In the controversial world of the brain and sex differences, it is very important not to lose sight of the described social effect. There are many misconceptions regarding the relationship between men and women that are associated with the concepts of sex and gender. Sex is usually described by biological and anatomical differences, while gender is described by social differences. Sex is determined by DNA, but gender is not. The differences between male and female brains start with what comes first.
X Factor
How do we become men and women? The road to fulfilling a sexual role begins with the great enthusiasm inherent in normal sexual behavior. Four hundred million sperm are trying to find an egg. Not such a difficult task. In the microscopic world of the human body, the egg is comparable to the Death Star*, and the sperm is comparable to star fighters with x-shaped wings. In this case, the designation with the letter “x” is very appropriate: this is how the important chromosome carried by each sperm and egg is designated. You remember about chromosomes from biology lessons; these twisted strands of DNA are found in the nucleus, which contains the information necessary for the creation of man. This requires 46 such units, which can be compared to 46 volumes of an encyclopedia. We get 23 from our mother and 23 from our father. Two chromosomes are responsible for sex. And at least one of them must be x
-chromosome.
*The Death Star is a space battle station in the fictional Star Wars universe, equipped with energy weapons of extreme destructive power, capable of destroying entire planets. Note ed.
If you receive a set of two x
- chromosomes, you will have to use the ladies' room all your life;
and if x
and
y
- then the men's room.
The man is responsible for determining gender. (The wives of King Henry VIII would have been glad to know about this, because he executed one of them because she could not bear him an heir to the throne, although he himself should have been beheaded.) the Y
chromosome (the egg does not have it) ), therefore the sex of the child depends on the male genetic material.
Gender differences between men and women are determined by three characteristics: genetic, anatomical and behavioral. Typically, researchers dedicate their careers to studying one of them; each difference is an entire island in the common ocean of research. We'll look at all three and start by explaining (from a molecular genetics perspective) why Henry VIII was very guilty of Anne Boleyn.
One of the most interesting facts about y
-chromosome is that in order to become a man, you do not need the entire chromosome. Only an initial push is required to launch the development program of the male organism, which is provided by the sex determination gene SRY. This gene was discovered by scientist David Page, director of the Whitehead Institute and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At fifty, he looks twenty-eight. Page has extraordinary intelligence, charm and a keen sense of humor. He is the first molecular sexologist. Or, more precisely, a broker-sexologist. David Page discovered that it is possible to destroy the SRY gene in a male embryo and turn it into a female embryo, or by adding the SRY* gene to a female embryo to turn it into a male embryo. Why is this possible? Concerned that men are biologically programmed to dominate the planet, researchers have discovered that the basic attitudes of mammals determine the female sex of the embryo.
* SR - sex reversal, from English. "gender transformation" Note lane
There is a monstrous inequality between the two chromosomes. X
The -chromosome does most of the heavy lifting, while the little
y
protects the genes associated with it by causing five of them to commit suicide in slow motion every million years.
Now the number of genes has been reduced to 100. For comparison, the x
chromosome carries 1,500 genes necessary for the implementation of the Embryo project. There is no reduction observed here.
From each x
x
to form a male individual .
For the development of a female embryo, they need twice as much. Let's imagine this as a pie recipe with one cup of flour. If you put two glasses, everything will not change for the best. The female embryo resorts to a time-tested weapon in solving the problem of two x
: it simply ignores one of them.
x
inactivation *.
One of the chromosomes is marked with the molecular equivalent of a “Do Not Disturb” sign. Given a choice of two X
chromosomes, maternal and paternal, researchers would like to know which one gets the nameplate.
*Inactivation x
-chromosomes occur in the cells of female mammals so that two copies of
x
-chromosomes do not produce twice as many corresponding gene products as in male mammals.
This process is called gene dosage compensation. The inactivated x
chromosome will remain inactive in all subsequent daughter cells resulting from division.
Note
ed. The answer was unexpected: it happens by chance. Some cells of a female embryo put a sign on the mother's x
-chromosome.
Neighboring cells place a plaque on the paternal chromosome. At this stage of the study, no dependence was identified - the event is considered random. Consequently, the cells of a female embryo are a complex mosaic of active and inactive maternal and paternal genes on the x
chromosomes.
Since males need all 1,500 genes on the X
chromosome to survive, and only have one, it would be foolish to post “Do Not Disturb” signs.
That's why they never do it. Inactivation of the x
chromosome does not occur during the development of a male embryo.
And since boys are supposed to get x
from their mother, all men are literally mama's boys. Boys are fundamentally different from their sisters, who are genetically more complex. This bold statement describes our first (genetic) evidence of gender differences.
We know the function of 1500 genes x
-chromosomes.
Now get ready. Many of these genes are associated with brain activity and determine how we think. In 2005, after the chromosome sequence of the human genome was revealed, it was determined that a high percentage of genes on the x
chromosome ensure the generation of a protein involved in the formation of the brain.
Some of these genes are involved in higher mental functioning, from verbal skills and social behavior to certain intellectual abilities. Scientists call the X
chromosome the “hot spot” of cognition.
Is more better?
The purpose of genes is to create molecules to carry out the functions of the cells in which they are found. From the totality of these cells, the brain is built - the center for controlling human behavior. Neuroanatomy studies the shape and structure of the nervous system and its organs, and the cell, as we know, is the basic unit of a living organism. And the brain, accordingly, also consists of cells. By the way, it is difficult to find those that are not influenced by sex chromosomes.
In laboratories (perhaps it should be noted that they are run by both men and women) differences have been identified in the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex of the brain, which control decision-making ability. Some parts of these areas are thicker in women than in men. Differences in the limbic system, where emotions are formed and certain cognitive processes occur, depend on gender. The fundamental difference concerns the amygdala, which regulates not only the occurrence of emotions, but also the ability to remember them. Contrary to popular belief, this area is much larger in men than in women. The amygdala of the female body communicates with the left hemisphere, and the male one - mostly with the right. Neuroscientists have studied the composition of biochemical elements, and here, too, there are gender differences. Consider, for example, the regulation of serotonin, a key neurotransmitter in regulating emotions and mood. In the male body, serotonin is synthesized 52 percent faster than in the female body.
Why do these physical differences matter? In the animal kingdom, size matters for survival. At first glance, human nature is subject to the same principles. We already know that in violinists, the area of the brain that controls the left hand is larger than the area that controls the right hand. However, neuroscientists have hardly touched upon the question of what the functions of cellular structures are. We still don't know whether the differences are influenced by neurotransmitters or whether they are determined by the size of the brain region involved.
War of the sexes
I have no particular desire to write about this. The study of gender differences in behavior has a long and complex history.
Even our best scientific minds were subject to all sorts of prejudices. For example, comments by Larry Summers, the president of Harvard University, regarding the assessment of female students' mathematics and theory nearly cost him his career. He is kept company by equally smart people. Just look at these three:
“A woman is a powerless man, unable to produce semen due to her cold nature. We, in turn, must treat women as a vice, although included in natural development by nature itself" ( Aristotle
).
“Girls begin to talk and stand on their feet earlier than boys, because weeds grow faster than grain.” - Martin Luther
).
"If they can put a man on the moon...why can't they all go there?" ( Jill
, graffiti on a shower wall done in 1985; response to Luther's quote).
Thus the battle of the sexes continues. Aristotle and Jill are separated by almost 2400 years, but in this war we have hardly moved from the point. Even in the era of the greatest scientific progress, using the metaphor of the names of the planets, Mars and Venus, some people try to give recommendations on how to use these differences in relationships. For the most part, I think their data boils down to statistics.
There are significant differences in how men and women think about certain things. But when it comes to measurable differences, everyone somehow thinks that scientists are talking about individual people, like themselves. And this is a big misconception. Scientists study the population as a whole. The statistics of such studies are not based on individual results. Yes, trends exist, but they vary, and often the differences between the sexes are so small that they can be neglected. And they are certainly not sufficient to say how a particular person (man or woman) will react to a particular stimulus. Indeed, every time neuroscientist Flo Haseltine performs a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, the machine reveals differences in the brain's response depending on whether she is studying the brain of a man or a woman. How exactly this relates to actual behavioral manifestations is a completely different question.
First hints
Knowledge of the biological causes of behavioral differences begins with the study of brain pathology. Mental retardation affects men more often than women. Many mental abnormalities are caused by a mutation in one of the 24 genes x
-chromosomes.
As is known, men do not have a reserve x
chromosome, and damage to it leads to corresponding consequences.
If x
chromosome is damaged, no consequences can often be expected.
This fact provides the strongest evidence that x
chromosomes are involved in brain function.
Professional psychiatrists have long been aware of gender-based differences in the types and severity of mental disorders. For example, men are more likely to develop schizophrenia. The ratio of women to men suffering from depression is 2:1 - this result is observed immediately after puberty and remains stable over the next fifty years. Men are more likely to exhibit antisocial behavior. Women are more prone to increased anxiety. Among men, more people suffer from alcoholism and drug addiction. Anorexia is more common in women. Thomas Insel of the US National Institute of Mental Health says: "It is difficult to determine which factor influences these diseases more than gender."
What about the behavior of healthy people? Are there big differences between the sexes when it comes to mental, social and cognitive functioning? Let's look at the latest results of scientists' work.
Traumatic situations
While walking with his parents, a little boy is hit by a car. It is unlikely that anyone who witnessed such an incident will be able to forget it. What if you could forget? You will remember that the amygdala plays a key role in the formation of emotions. Suppose some magic elixir is able to stop this process. Such an elixir exists, and its effects demonstrate that men and women process emotions differently.
You may have heard about interhemispheric asymmetry. You may also know that due to the predominance of the right or left hemisphere, people are divided into creators and analysts. This phenomenon can be described using the following example: suppose the left side of a magnificent liner is responsible for keeping the ship afloat, and the right side is responsible for ensuring that it overcomes the waves. Both parties are involved in both processes. However, this does not mean that the hemispheres work in the same way. The right determines the essence of the issue, and the left analyzes the details.
Observing the brain function of men and women under conditions of acute stress (he showed them horror films), researcher Larry Cahill noticed that in men the reaction was expressed in the amygdala in the right hemisphere. Their left hemisphere was at rest. In women, the reaction was observed in the other hemisphere. Their left amygdala became active while their right hemisphere remained silent. If men are right-brained, does that mean they are better at remembering the essence than the details of emotions caused by stress? Do women remember details better than the essence of an emotional experience associated with stress? Cahill decided to find out.
This magical elixir of oblivion is the beta blocker propranolol, which is commonly used to regulate blood pressure. This drug blocks the production of biochemicals that activate the amygdala during emotional experiences. Its properties were identified during research into drugs for the treatment of mental disorders and the consequences of participation in hostilities.
Cahill's subjects took the drug before watching the film. A week later, a researcher tested their memories of the film. It turned out that men who took the medicine lost the ability to remember the meaning of what was happening, unlike men who did not take the medicine. Women have lost the ability to reproduce details. But these results should be interpreted correctly. They reflect only the emotional reaction to stressful situations, and not objective data and conclusions. This is not a battle between accountants and dreamers.
Cahill's findings have been confirmed by similar studies around the world. Other laboratories continued his endeavors and found that women reproduce emotional events from their own experience faster and more intensely than men. Their memories of emotionally important events, such as a first date or vacation, are more vivid. Other studies have shown that under stress, women focus on raising children, while men withdraw. This trend observed in women is called “protection and support”*. Why this happens is unknown, but American evolutionary biologist Stephen Gould states: “There is no way to draw a clear line without violating the laws of logic, mathematics and general scientific principles.”
*According to Shelley Taylor's theory, Tend and Befriend, under stress, women tend to protect their children and seek support from a specific social group. Note lane
This statement reminded me of my sons' fight, but Gould is talking about the opposition between the biological and the social.
Verbal communication
Behavioral scientist Deborah Tannen has done some amazing work in this area by studying gender differences in verbal ability. In short, the data Tannen and other researchers have found over the past thirty years is this: Women are better at it. Although the nuances are often controversial, most empirical evidence comes from atypical members of the human race, including those with brain pathologies. We have long known that speech and reading impairments occur in boys twice as often as in girls. Women recover speech better after a stroke than men. Many researchers believe that this imbalance is due to differences in the process of thinking itself, and look to neuroanatomical data to explain the differences. When processing verbal information, women use both hemispheres of the brain, while men use only one. In women, the hemispheres are connected by a thick “cable”, in men - by a thinner one. In addition, the fair sex has a backup data archiving system, which the stronger sex does not have.
These clinical data were used to confirm the results obtained by the researchers. At school age, girls' verbal thinking is better developed than boys'. They perform better on tasks related to word recall, speech fluency, and articulation speed. As girls grow up, they remain champions in the field of memorizing and processing verbal information. However, these data cannot be viewed in isolation from the social context. Therefore, Gould’s opinion also has a right to exist.
Tannen spent a lot of time observing and filming how girls and boys interacted with each other. Her initial goal was to find out how children at different ages talk to their best friends, and whether they use any patterns. And if such schemes exist, how stable are they? Will the patterns developed in childhood be preserved during student years? What Tannen found was expected and consistent, regardless of a person's age or location. The model of communication adopted by an adult is formed directly during interaction with the same sex in childhood. Tannen's data focuses on three aspects.
Strengthening relationships
When communicating, best friends lean towards each other, maintaining eye contact, and talk a lot. They use their verbal talent to strengthen relationships. Boys never behave like that. They rarely look each other directly in the face, preferring to look past or askance. They rarely make eye contact and do not engage in conversation to strengthen their relationship. In the boys' community there is a different currency - hits. Joint physical activity is the glue that holds their relationship together.
My sons Josh and Noah have played the same game since they could walk—a simple ball-tossing game. Josh says, “I can throw the ball all the way to the ceiling,” and immediately does it. Children laugh. Noah catches the ball and says: “Oh so?!” Then I can throw it to the sky,” and throws the ball even higher. So, laughing, they continue the game until they reach space and God.
Tannen found these patterns everywhere—except in the behavior of little girls. Female version: one of the sisters says: “I can throw the ball to the ceiling” - and does it. The sisters laugh merrily. Then the second sister takes the ball, throws it to the ceiling and says: “I can do that too!” And then they talk about how great it is that they can both throw the ball the same height. The same pattern of behavior is observed in both sexes in adulthood.
Unfortunately, Deborah Tannen's findings were misinterpreted: "Boys compete all the time, but girls always work together." However, as practice shows, boys are also very prone to cooperation. They just do it through competition, developing their favorite physical activity strategy.
Negotiation
In elementary school, boys finally begin to use their verbal skills—for example, to discuss their status in a large group. According to Tannen, males with high social status give orders to the rest of the group, verbally or even physically pushing boys with low status.
“Leaders” maintain power over their fiefdoms by not only issuing orders, but also verifying their implementation. Other strong members of the group compete with them, so the boys at the head of the groups quickly learn to fight back against attacks. Often in verbal form. As a result, there is a clear hierarchy in the boys' community. And it's quite durable. Life for low-status group members is often sad. The independent behavior characteristic of a controlling elite is always highly valued.
By observing little girls, Tannen identified different patterns of behavior. Both high-status and low-status girls (they have a hierarchy just like boys) used completely different strategies to create and maintain hierarchy. Girls spend a lot of time talking - communication is very important to them. The type of conversation determines the status of the relationship. The one who is trusted with secrets has the status of a best friend. The more secrets are entrusted, the closer the girls perceive each other, but girls tend to downplay their status among themselves. With the help of developed verbal skills, they avoid issuing decrees. When one of the girls tries to command, her manner is usually rejected: she is labeled as a "boss" and becomes socially isolated. It's not that decisions aren't followed through in a girl group... Many girls make suggestions and then discuss alternatives. Eventually a consensus is reached.
The differences between the sexes can be demonstrated with one powerful word. Boys say, “Do this,” and girls say, “Let’s do this.”
Adulthood
Tannen found that over time, these modes of verbal communication become entrenched, leading to differences in the social sensitivity of the two groups. Each boy who gave orders became a leader. Each girl who gave orders became a commander. By the end of school, their behavior was completely formed. And it manifests itself especially clearly at work and in married life.
A twenty-year-old newly-made wife is traveling in a car with her friend Emily. She felt thirsty. "Emily, are you thirsty?" she asks. Emily, who has experience in negotiations, understands what her friend wants.
"Don't know. And you?" - Emily reacts. A small discussion ensues between them over whether they are thirsty enough to stop the car and buy water.
A few days later, the same girl is traveling with her husband. "Do you want to drink?" she asks. “No, I don’t want to,” the husband replies.
That day they had a little quarrel. The wife was angry because she wanted her husband to stop the car; and he was angry because she didn’t say directly what she wanted. Such conflicts are widespread in family life.
This scenario could very well play out at work. Women who adhere to a “masculine” style of leadership risk being perceived as bossy. Men who adhere to the same line of behavior are considered simply decisive. Tannen has made a major contribution to proving that such stereotypes are formed early in social development and may be due to interhemispheric asymmetry. In all countries, on all continents, at any age and time, women and men behave differently. Tannen, whose specialty was English literature, identified these trends even in centuries-old manuscripts.
Nature or nurture?
Tannen's results are statistical calculations. She found that language patterns are influenced by many factors: region of residence, personality, profession, social class, age, ethnicity and background all influence how we use speech to discuss our personal safety. A social approach to children of different sexes is applied from the moment of their birth; they are often brought up in a society where prejudices formed over centuries are strong. It would be a miracle if we could ever move beyond this experience and rely on the principles of equality.
Given the influence of culture on behavior, it would be too easy to resort to a purely biological explanation for Tannen's observations. And since the biological factor greatly influences human behavior, it would be too simple to resort to an explanation from a social point of view. We do not know what is stronger in us - biological or social. This answer is discouraging. Cahill, Tannen and many other researchers have worked hard to find out. However, to assume that there is a relationship between genes, cells and behavior, if there is none, is not only wrong, but also dangerous. Think about Larry Summers.
Ideas
How can we use this data in the real world?
Look at facts through the prism of emotions.
Teachers and employers have a responsibility to take into account the emotional lives of men and women and should be aware of the following:
- Information experienced emotionally is better remembered.
- Men and women experience certain emotions differently.
- These differences are explained in terms of biological and social factors.
Implement a new gender-based seating policy in the classroom.
The teacher of my son's third grade explains the decline in results by the end of the year to stereotypes. Girls excel in humanities subjects, while boys perform better in mathematics and science. And this is in third grade! She knew that there was no statistical evidence of greater math ability in males. Why then was she guided by common misconceptions?
The teacher guessed that the problem was the social activity of the students during the lesson. It is very important here who answers the question she asks first. In language lessons, girls usually answer first. The other students react with a collective “me too.” The boys' reaction is hierarchical. Girls usually know the answer; boys generally don't, and they do what low-status males tend to do: shy away. The abyss becomes obvious. In mathematics and other natural disciplines, students are on par. Boys resort to the well-known “over all” behavior in an attempt to strengthen the hierarchy, which is based on primacy. At the same time, they also fight with everyone who is not at the top, including girls. Therefore, puzzled girls begin to avoid answering in these lessons. This is how the difference in results appears.
The teacher holds a meeting for the girls to test her suspicions. She wonders how they will act. Girls decide to study mathematics and science separately from boys. In the past, the teacher advocated for mixed classes, but now she is beginning to wonder about the appropriateness of such a position. If girls lose the battle with boys in third grade, there is every reason to assume that the situation is unlikely to change further. The teacher is forced to take note of this. It only took two weeks to close the gaps in learning outcomes.
Could this approach be used in classrooms around the world? In fact, the experiment does not yet indicate a universal rule - it is just a comment. Finding a pattern requires studying hundreds of classes and thousands of students over many years.
Formation of work teams based on gender
I once had the opportunity to discuss gender issues with a group of executives at Boeing's Executive Development Center. After I gave them some of Larry Cahill's research, I added:
“Women are considered to be more emotional than men, both at home and at work. In my opinion, this is not a completely fair opinion.” I explained this figuratively by the fact that women perceive the emotional components of the situation using a greater number of input points (this is the point) and, accordingly, see it in better quality. They simply have more information to react to. If men had the same number of input points, their reaction would be exactly the same. The two men in the last row were even moved. After the lecture, I asked their opinion, fearing that I had offended them. But their answer stunned me. “For the first time in my professional career,” one of them explained, “I felt like I didn’t have to apologize for who I was.”
These words made me think that in the process of evolution, different types of emotional perception of the situation helped people conquer the world. Why is the business world deprived of this advantage? A team or work group that can simultaneously grasp the essence and account for all the details under pressure—like M&A specialists—is a match made in business heaven.
During trainings in companies, training situations are often arranged - for example, a mixed or single-sex working group is formed to participate in a project. Create teams of any composition, but first teach them about gender differences. You have four options. Will mixed teams of men and women perform better? Will trained groups perform better than untrained groups? Will these results remain consistent after, say, six months? You may find that a diverse team is more productive. At least with this development, men and women will have equal rights in decision-making at the negotiating table.
It is possible to create a work environment where gender differences are seen and valued. If this had been done earlier, perhaps more women would be in science and engineering today. We could break the glass ceiling and save companies a lot of money. And they would even help keep the job of the president of Harvard University.
*“Glass ceiling” is a term adopted in American management in the early 1980s to describe an invisible barrier limiting a woman’s career advancement. Note ed.
Summary
- Men have one X
chromosome, and women have two, despite the fact that one of them is reserve. - Genetically, women are more complex, since the active x
-chromosomes of cells are a set of maternal and paternal cells.
Males receive x
chromosomes from their mother, and the
y
chromosome contains less than 100 genes, while
the x
chromosome carries about 1,500 genes. - The structure and biochemical composition of the brain of a woman and a man are different - for example, men have a larger amygdala, and they produce serotonin faster. However, it is unknown whether these differences are significant.
- Men and women respond differently to extreme stress, with women engaging the left hemisphere amygdala and remembering details of emotions. Men use the right hemisphere amygdala and perceive the essence of the problem.
© J. Medina. Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain. — M.: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2014. © Published with permission of the publisher
Communication differences2
Women tend to speak in the 1st person, they do not often interrupt a person, their speech is more correct, competent, they are less likely to laugh them off and call them names, and do not use slang. But women love unfinished sentences with subtext. Girls are well versed in colors and shades and often use adjectives.
Men are characterized by persistent, demanding, aggressive speech. They understand technical concepts better. And they are prone to using various specific words and harsh obscene statements, but women have recently been overcoming this gender difference, as proven by science.
Differences in the behavior of women and men - Sexual relationships
Sex is always more important for men than for women. And at times. And precisely from the side that we did not suspect. Men are capable of cheating on their beloved women “without a second thought.” They may do this for the love of variety.
We most often take revenge on guys through sex because they cheated on us, didn’t buy a fur coat, or didn’t tell us that they love us. Thus, each of us hurts the other, without particularly thinking about the root causes of what is happening.
Also, a relationship for a woman is the scheme “LOVE + RELATIONSHIP = SEX”, but for men it is “SEX + RELATIONSHIP = LOVE”. As you can see, the mathematical law “the sum does not change by changing the places of the terms” does not work in life.
Nonverbal Communication 3
Researchers have found that girls smile more often when talking, and they look longer into the eyes of the narrator than when speaking. Guys behave the same way when they listen and speak. They have developed tactile contact, they want to touch their interlocutor, especially pretty girls.
Differences in the behavior of women and men - Experiences
We also always experience them differently. Men, for example, prefer to spend time alone or in the company of their friends.
With the help of various games and alcohol, they try to cope with life circumstances for which they were not prepared. Breakup of relationships, death of a pet or loved one, collapse of plans. They sit in their little “cave” and do not require any sympathy.
Women, in turn, strive to surround themselves with affection and care from their mother or friends, and also, of course, from a loved one. We want to be held, hugged and promised that all adversity will pass and dissipate. Few men realize that you don’t want to be alone, even if you say “Leave me alone.”
Moral behavior4
This parameter defines an honest and respectful attitude towards other people. So, psychologists found out what values people consider important. People of the opposite sex chose from 15 proposed values, women put “honesty” in 7th place, “truthfulness” in 11th place. Men ranked “honesty” in 6th place, and “truthfulness” in 9th place. At that time in the USA, both sexes considered these values to be the most important . That is, both sexes lie and do not say anything.
This means that in a gender sense there is no significant difference between a man and a woman, initially it is just a person, a set of characteristics and what he becomes depends on the society and environment that are near him. Therefore, gender characteristics of the behavior of men and women are determined by traditional roles in society.
Differences in the behavior of women and men - Mood changes
Women have a completely different level of emotionality, which means they have a different temperament than men. That is why in Basta’s song it is sung
“No, you’re not cruel, you’re just crazy, now you’re laughing, but a minute ago you were crying...”
For some reason, most men think that we do this on purpose. If only they knew how much we suffer from this.
This is why we often quarrel, because they think that we shout and are nervous on purpose. Although in reality everything is very simple - in the morning your nail broke and you think that you are not beautiful enough.
