Are men wired differently than women?

Philosophy Forums Psychology and Mind
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Are men wired differently than women?
Let me count the ways.

This became more evident when my father was working on one of his handyman projects. My father can make things out of leftover pieces of wood from other projects. He’s skilled in the art of recycling things around the house and always manages to find a use for something that was previously used for something else. Often he doesn’t even have to leave the dooryard when he’s inspired to start one of his “works in progress.” It’s almost uncanny.

One day in late September, I was out in the shed and was looking over his latest project. He had been organizing his tools and just generally tidying up the shed. At one time, there was a barn but it was torn down many years ago. The sills were rotting and my father didn’t want to put the money into it at the time. The more valuable items were sold to an antique dealer, some other things to a junk dealer, quite a few things were thrown out or hauled away. Everything left was consolidated and stored in the shed and attached workshop. He has since built two storage buildings (one for his lawn tractor).

Well, I was out in the shed and I marvelled at the screwdrivers lined up along the wall. My father had made something out of leftover remnants of wood and had drilled holes to put the screwdrivers in (all 44 of them). Yes, there were so many, I just had to count them. I even took the time to measure the holders. One piece was 36 inches long and the other one was 28 inches long. The screwdrivers looked like soldiers all lined up in a neat row. I went in the house and asked my father how he had managed to accumulate so many screwdrivers. He said “Actually, that’s not all of them. There are more–8 or 10 or so in a a plastic container.” I went out and there were actually 13 which makes a total of 57 screwdrivers. Some of them had already been in the house when they first bought it back in 1962.

The point I’m trying to make is, do you see many women with 57 screwdrivers in their possession? I’m not trying to suggest that there aren’t exceptions. Perhaps women don’t have time to learn how to do the handy-dandy work that a lot of men do because they’re too busy cooking, cleaning, taking care of children and working full-time on top of that.

Many men today share the responsibilities of housework, cooking and child care with their mate or spouse. But there are still a few stragglers from the “old school” that still think, “That’s women’s work.” Back in the 60’s, there were still a lot of women that weren’t in the workplace and my mother was one of them. She worked very hard taking care of us, the house and making sure all the bills were paid. She managed money very well.

Maybe if the tables were turned and women picked up a hammer and nails, men would be forced to do some of the work that women have always been expected to do for thousands of years. I think it’s true that women are better at some of the more domestic chores than men, or did this just come about because of all the centuries of conditioning? Sometimes I think that men are just as capable but they’re just not quite as fussy as women about some things. Do you think men care if there’s a little wrinkle in the kitchen curtains before they’re hung up to the windows? Do they care if the Hummel in the china closet is gently washed and polished to a brilliant shine so that you can see your face in it? Anyway, you get my drift. I think some women prefer to do some things themselves because they are more particular about how some things are done. Other women aren’t quite as fussy.

I’ve always thought that men were better at fixing things than women. Again, is this just conditioning? I’m sure there are women who are equally skilled in mechanics or other jobs that are generally thought of as men’s work.

Something else I was thinking about - husbands and wives may share domestic duties and yardwork while they’re still employed. Do men feel that their wives or mates should do the bulk of the housework once they’re retired? Do they suddenly think that because their wife is no longer in the workplace, she now has all this time on her hands to do all the housework? In the last four decades, as many women as men have been out in the workplace. Men were then prompted to share the duties around the house, as it should be. Do you think that some men revert to their “old way” of thinking after they retire thinking that this “arrangement” is no longer necessary?

Anyway, I’m going in all different directions with this, so I’ll let everyone take it from here.

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99 percent of the trait differences are conditioning. for a while i thought it was 100 percent. now i think when you strip men and women of their egos there natural souls are ever so slightly different. woman ever so slightly softer . watch the narnia movie. the brother and sister, they are egoless, and are verry verry similar, but when it comes down to it, the girl is softer. maybe the boy would be to, but feels obligated to be slightly more tuff, to protect his family, after all he is taller . but as far as the screwdrivers, your mom could do that, if she desired. and your father could rap over turntables, if he desired. but i think we would agree that it would soun best if your father was on the beatbox, and your mother was singing opera, you should rite poems, and read them in your dads breaks .

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I have fallopian tubes. You?

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Well, Bessy has part of it. Most men aren’t likely to become ‘mommies’ at least for the time being. (with genetic engineering, who knows?)

There have been several studies done using MRI technology to study brain function of male/female. Given the same stimulus, males use different parts of the brain to process information than do females. The collected information of these studies seem to confirm that men are more ‘project’ oriented while women tend to be more sensitive to relationships. While the brain studies are far from complete, they suggest that men and women are ‘wired’ differently, which may have a lot to do with the ‘traditional’ male/female roles. I agree that most roles are learned, but they may have evolved in the manner they did because it seemed ‘natural’ - and those roles may be prompted by the differences in how we ‘see’ differently.

Some of the roles that men tradtionally avoid isn’t a true male/female issue. I’ve never been one to say “that’s women’s work.” But I am lazy, and if I can find a woman who will do all the stuff I don’t want to do… :laughing:

JT

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Yeah, it’s conditioning. As a male I have three sets of screwdrivers, but wish that I had none. The genius of women, and the thing that makes you want to kill them, is that they are master directors. So, tools aren’t needed.

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the genius of woman is their elegant and gracefull .

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Obviously, you have not been to the mall today.

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the genius of woman is their elegant and gracefull

That too, and no tools needed.

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obviously. i was refering to woman that have managed to avoid taking on a 2005 ego .

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cellular wasteland pixalated dispair.

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thats the title of the movie of the wife i will never marry.

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Just beware of the woman who steals your heart. Look at her mother carefully, darling, before you take the plunge. Look and listen to her mother. Verrrrrrry carefully.

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This thread is aching to make the unsuspecting poster (moi) into a sexist, old fashioned, pathetic loser… but here goes:

Women are more intuitive with regard to relationships and feelings.

Men are more intuitive with sizing people up.

Women talk more and communicate feelings.

Men communicate less, but say what they mean and mean what they say.

Women are complicated beings driven by hormonal hell.

Men are simple. Men are easy to figure out; The sweet, sensitive ones make me want to cry.

Women take too much to heart.

Men do too, but will never let you know it.

Women let men win.

Men would rather a woman kick their ass intellectually.

Women rule the roost.

Men know it.

Women talk about people too much, but also share intimate feelings with each other.

Men talk to each other about things on the surface.

Women are nesters.

Men like nests.

Women can be good or bad mothers.

Men can be good or bad fathers.

Women fall in love too easily.

Men are afraid to fall in love, but fall harder when they do.

Women drive the religion in the home.

Men follow and (usually) don’t care all that much.

Women need to be told they are needed.

Men need to be told that many times more, and are told many times less.

Forgive me if I am old fashioned, but this is what I’ve seen. :smiley:

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Hence why we’re afraid.

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Hence it is more important to us.

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Please note, this means that there may be different intelligence, similar to the theory of multiple intelligence.

Men and Women Really Do Think Differently
By Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 20 January 2005
02:12 pm ET

Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study.

The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.

Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.

“These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,” said Haier, adding that, “by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain.”

The results are detailed in the online version of the journal NeuroImage.

In human brains, gray matter represents information processing centers, whereas white matter works to network these processing centers.

The results from this study may help explain why men and women excel at different types of tasks, said co-author and neuropsychologist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico. For example, men tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized processing, such as mathematics, Jung said, while women are better at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions of the brain, which aids language skills.

Scientists find it very interesting that while men and women use two very different activity centers and neurological pathways, men and women perform equally well on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as intelligence tests.

This research also gives insight to why different types of head injuries are more disastrous to one sex or the other. For example, in women 84 percent of gray matter regions and 86 percent of white matter regions involved in intellectual performance were located in the frontal lobes, whereas the percentages of these regions in a man’s frontal lobes are 45 percent and zero, respectively. This matches up well with clinical data that shows frontal lobe damage in women to be much more destructive than the same type of damage in men.

Both Haier and Jung hope that this research will someday help doctors diagnose brain disorders in men and women earlier, as well as provide help designing more effective and precise treatments for brain damage.

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look at the mother ? i will. what if the young gal dispises her mother? i dont know, i think i can tell the diff between an ego, and a soul, but i suppose i could be misled. there are four kinds of people 1. real warm people 2. real cold people 3 warm fake people. 4. cold fake people.

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I have never wired a man or a woman, so I cannot say, but I have wired many plugs and all I can say it, types of plugs vary as much as the types of men and women. So, I would hazard a guess, that, yes, men and women are wired differently.

The basic wiring of a plug invovles three wires: Brown, Green and Yellow! (colours may fair)

Brown for Live, and Green and Yellow for Earth!!

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Bessy, my chum, my pal,…:smiley: :smiley: This isn’t my reality. I think a lot of “men’s work” is fun (brief moments of heavy physical activity followed by hanging around drinking beer/smoking weed…count me in) which is why I insist on helping with it and then insist that he help me with “women’s work”. My sig other and I fall into both(or in the wrong gender) of many of your observations.

  1. a)Women are more intuitive with regard to relationships and feelings.

We’re equally intuitive.

b)Men are more intuitive with sizing people up.

I’m slightly better than him.

  1. a) Women talk more and communicate feelings.

He talks way more than I do.

b)Men communicate less, but say what they mean and mean what they say.

This describes me perfectly.

  1. a)Women are complicated beings driven by hormonal hell.

When I have PMS…absolutely so.

 b)Men are simple. Men are easy to figure out; The sweet, sensitive ones make me want to cry.

Men are different from one another, and most are far more complicated than they are given credit for. All are sensitive,they just express it in different ways.

Is suppose the only thing I do that is stereotypically female is having other people get rid of large spiders for me. I’m a bit arachnephobic, though…so it really has nothing to do with my gender.

***Men are afraid to fall in love, but fall harder when they do.

This is me all over.

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Hi Shy,

You’ve just pointed out the hassle of generalization which can always be ‘true’ for large groups while having nothing to do with the individual. I think Bess was talking about the stereotypes, not the actuality of any particular person.

Unfortunately, I fit most of the stereotypes she mentioned although I can fool you once in awhile. It depends on what I had for lunch. :stuck_out_tongue:

JT