Women and Men: What Accounts for the Difference
In honor of Women’s History Month, this article is focused on the differences between females and males. This article in no way argues for gender essentialism or against identities that exist between the binary; this is just a reflection of psychological differences that have been found between males and females in general.
With the understanding of psychological differences between women and men, therapists and treatment centers can better address the needs of their patients. We can also better understand why certain stereotypes exist and if their basis is unfounded or if there is a reason why, as a society, we think certain things about men or women.
In childhood, males and females do not have very different behavioral or physical challenges, but when adolescents reach puberty, things change in the biology of teenagers.
Males
Increase of testosterone can increase physical strength and aggressive behavior in comparison with females in puberty
Are more likely to have a masculine ego and fight for goals in puberty
In heterosexual relationships, men are more likely to seek out a female who is equal or lower in social hierarchy
Greater amygdale: more likely to be aggressive and act strongly in threatening situations
The right amygdale is more active: more likely to take action
Are less likely to react to white noise because testosterone can enter and block the auditory system
Are more likely to be emotionally stable and consistent due to the lack of monthly hormonal cycle
Are more likely to overestimate their ability
Struggling and having some resistance in males helps them develop themselves as it can release positive and excitatory hormones that are associated with competition and physical fight; whereas with women, there are no hormones released, and it can wear on their health
Are more likely to use distance and direction, which may indicate a better spatial understanding
Are more likely to draw action scenes, whereas females are more likely to draw people, animals, and plants
Tend to be more competitive; natural urge to establish hierarchy
Females
Are more likely to have negative emotions, which lead to anxiety and depression in puberty
Are more likely to work collaboratively to reach goals
Are more likely to give up personal wants to save a relationship
Have greater holistic perception: more likely to observe and dissect an entire situation
Are more likely to experience higher empathy; in an electric shock study, women’s brains showed activation in the same pain areas in the brain as if they were getting shocked when they had to shock their male partners, this was absent in males
In heterosexual relationships, women are more likely to seek out males with a higher level of social hierarchy than themselves
11% more neurons in their language and hearing centers compared to men, so they are more likely to have higher hearing ability as well as more perceptive of emotional tone
Are more likely to play relationship-based games
A bigger prefrontal cortex: more likely to express anger verbally and be able to control their anger
Left amygdale is more active: justifying responsibilities towards commencing mental reaction over a physical one
Females are more likely to use landmarks for navigation
In studies, they have been shown to be able to identify emotions in others better than men
Interestingly, a study on the impact of music on infants showed that female infants who were regularly exposed to music grew faster and with fewer health problems, while there was no impact on male infants
Females release more oxytocin while around a sexual partner or friends and are more likely to crave oxytocin, which can explain why they are more likely to seek out social contact and intimacy
So what are the causes of this difference?
Some of it is purely biological; the more testosterone in men has a different impact than the hormonal cycle that women go through. Certain hormones just affect the brain differently, and there are different amounts of hormones in men and women.
Another explanation is evolution. As we have evolved since the beginning of our species, we have been conditioned over time, and our bodies have changed to meet the needs to reproduce and continue. Women are less likely to physically fight men, and this might have always been true of women, but it could have been conditioned as men are more likely to be taller and physically stronger than women. Women likely have an expanded sense of hearing and listening comprehension because infant cries can be very have a similar sound, so knowing what an infant needs, especially while breastfeeding, is important for the baby to be able to survive.
The last explanation accounts for a lot of the things we think about women and men and why there is sexism in a more general sense across cultures, and that is because of socialization. Women don’t biologically love pink more than men, nor do men love blue more; they are arbitrary colors that have been assigned to the genders over time. While high heels are now seen as a shoe for women and people who have feminine identities, in the 10th century, they were associated with men and power in Persia, Greece, and Egypt. This is an important distinction that while there are real differences between the sexes, the opinions we have are much more likely to be associated with social expectations than biological or evolutionary factors. We also see things through a very heteronormative lens, in which women give and men take, but this script is ever-changing. Do not let what people assume of you based on your gender define you. Women and men are equally capable, and in my research, I found that women and men are completely equal in potential for IQ, meaning that neither is inherently smarter or better in that sense. We can learn from our differences and work together to move forward as a human species.
Citations
Mehta, S., Chahal, A., Malik, S., Rai, R. H., Malhotra, N., Vajrala, K. R., Sidiq, M., Sharma, A., Sharma, N., & Kashoo, F. Z. (2024). Understanding Female and Male Insights in Psychology: Who Thinks What?. Journal of lifestyle medicine, 14(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.15280/jlm.2024.14.1.1
Yale School of Medicine. (2008). The physiological and the psychological: How women and men are different. Yale School of Medicine. https://medicine.yale.edu/news/yale-medicine-magazine/article/the-physiological-and-the-psychological-how-women-and/
