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5 False Myths About Gender Differences

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By: DivineCaroline
May 30, 2011
About Melissa
Follow Melissa at @DivineCaroline

By: Allison Ford, DivineCaroline

Over the last few decades, touchy-feely self-help books have painted a picture of
male-female relationships as something between an ongoing battle and a complete
exercise in futility. They lecture that men and women are different, with completely
different styles of communication, thinking, and behavior. Theyre not just different
sexes, theyre from entirely different planets, and never the twain shall meet.

If all these things were true, it would be a miracle that any two people managed to
have a functioning relationship at all. Indeed, recent psychological research has
shown that women and men are far more alike than they are different, and many of
the things that were taught about the supposed differences in mens and womens
brains are nothing but mere myths.

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Myth #1: Men Are Better at Math

Its been established that boys tend to do better on math tests and are more likely
than girls to choose math-centric career paths, such as engineering, technology,
and computers. The real problem, though, is not an actual biological handicap, but
the perception that girls are inferior at math. Many tests, like one professors at the
University of Texas and New York University conducted, found that when they
tested groups of people who were primed to think about the bias against women,
the women scored poorly, but in groups that were primed to think about gender-
neutral subjects, the score gap disappeared. This stereotype anxiety is a well-
known psychological phenomenon in testing, and many researchers now believe it
accounts for much of girls lower performance on math tests.

Myth #2: Men Are More Competitive

In many societies, the stereotype is that men are competitive and women are
collaborative. Some studies of Western subjects confirm this bias, but a study
conducted by professors from Columbia University and the University of Chicago
found surprising results in cultures that havent been subjected to this bias, such as
the Masai, a patriarchal tribe from Tanzania, and the Khasi, a matrilineal group
from India. In the patriarchal society, the men were more competitive than the
women were, but in the matrilineal society, it was the women who were more
competitive. The researchers interpreted their findings as evidence that there is no
biological basis for competitive drive, and that differences between the sexes are
merely social biases, reflecting the fact that young girls and boys are socialized
differently.
Myth #3: Women Are More Emotional
In a study conducted by Vanderbilt University psychologist Ann Kring, male and
female college students watching movies reported feeling the same levels
of emotion, but the females felt more comfortable expressing them. In fact, many
studies have shown that theres no difference in the experiences of emotion
between men and women, but since women are already perceived to be the more
emotional sex, they consistently score higher than men on tests of emotional
expression. According to a study published in the February 2004 issue of Sex
Roles: a Journal of Research, male and female subjects were equally likely to
express feelings of sympathy or lend support to friends, but often the
circumstances surrounding the outward expression of emotion are highly
dependent on the context, such as whether the subject is being watched by
onlookers.

Myth #4: Women Are More Talkative

One popular stereotype claims that women speak tens of thousands of words per
day, while men manage to utter only a few hundred. In fact, theres virtually no
difference between the number of words spoken by men and those spoken by
women. A 2007 study at the University of Arizona monitored 396 college students
and found that both the men and the women spoke an average of about sixteen
thousand words per day, without any statistically significant difference between the
sexes. In the June 2007 issue of Science magazine, researcher Matthias Mehl
reported that the studys three chattiest subjects actually happened to all be men,
each of whom uttered about forty thousand words per day.

Myth #5: Women Are More Intuitive

Many women pride themselves on their powers of intuition, but new research
reveals that intuitive, empathic thinking isnt solely the province of ladies. A study
conducted at the University of Hertfordshire in Great Britain tested subjects ability
to decipher real smiles from fake ones. Although more women than men reported
that they were highly intuitive, there was virtually no corresponding improvement
in performance. Men detected 72 percent of the real smiles to womens 71 percent.
When asked specifically to decipher the expressions of the opposite sex, men did
even better. They detected 76 percent of false female smiles, while women picked
out only 67 percent of mens fake smiles. Intuition is traditionally considered a
female attribute, but research such as this shows that mens and womens abilities
are just about even.

According to psychologist Janet Shibley Hyde, whose article The Gender

Similarities Hypothesis was published in the September 2005 issue of the
American Psychologist, there are only a few areas in which men and women are
substantially different. They differ in measures of motor performance in tasks like
speed and throwing power (since after puberty, men are bigger and have more
muscle mass), and in certain facets of and attitudes about sexuality. Also, women
and men differ in expression of aggression: men exhibit more physical aggression,
while women score higher on tests of relational aggression and verbal bullying.
Reinforcing stereotypes about men and women is damaging; it can prevent people
from expressing themselves, and it solidifies outdated gender roles. Some women
may talk more than their husbands and some men may be more competitive than
their wives, but those differences are created by society, not biology. Anyone whos
been in a marital argument can attest that sometimes it seems like his or her
partner is on a separate planet. But the truth is that men and women are far more
alike than we are different.
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/8-myths-about-sex-differences/

8 Myths About Sex Differences

May 23, 2012 by Agustin Fuentes 75 Comments

Agustn Fuentes points out that

when it comes to men and
women, what everyone knows
isnt what science shows.
Everyone knows that men and women are really different. We think differently and act
differently because we are wired differently. I mean look at our brains and genitals: they
are just plain different. Right?

Wrong.

What if many of the things we assume about the biology of difference are not so different at
all? What if it is not our wiring but the ways in which our bodies and minds develop and
play out in society that makes us seem so unalike? Could it be that men and women are
more similar than we think?

Yes, women give birth and lactate and men do not. And yes, men are, on average, slightly
larger than women and usually have greater upper body strength. There are these basic
biological differences between the sexes and they are importantbut why always focus on
the differences and not the biological, and behavioral, similarities? Ahh, that would be
because of gender.

Gender is a powerful reality; it is the perception and expectation of differences between

males and females and it shapes both our bodies and our society. Gender differences are
real and important, but they are not hard wired or even static. There is no biological or
evolutionary mandate that only women really care for babies and show emotions, or that
males are the best at economics and politics and prefer beers and skirt-chasing to domestic
bliss. These are patterns of gender roles and expectations that shape the ways we look at
our biology and behavior. They influence the way we expect the world to be. It is the
strength of the societal myths about sex that fool us into thinking that men and women are
so different by nature.

So lets bust some of those myths.

1) Gender and sex are the same thing

Sex and gender are interconnected, but not the same thing. Sex is a biological state that is
measured via what chromosomes you have (XX or XY, usually) and aspects of your body
and physiology. Gender includes the roles, expectations and perceptions that a given
society has for the sexes. Most societies have two genders on a masculinity-femininity
continuum. Some have more. We are born with a biological sex, but acquire gender.
There is a ton of individual diversity within societies and sexes in regards to how sex and
gender play out in behavior and personality. There is an extensive body of data
demonstrating this, but people interested only in specific differences between men and
women choose to ignore it.

2) Male and female genitals are totally different

Most people think that male and female genitals are about as different as can be:
penis=male and vagina=female. But even this basic dichotomy is not quite correct: the
genitals emerge from the same mass of embryonic tissue. For the first six weeks of life the
tissue masses develop identically. At about 6-7 weeks, depending on whether the fetus has
XX or XY chromosomes (usually), the tissues to start to differentiate. One part of the
tissues begins to form the clitoris or penis and another forms the labia or scrotum. Another
area begins to form into either the testes or the ovaries. This means that physiologically,
male and female genitals are made of the same stuff and work in similar ways.

3) Male and female brains are different

If there were really deep seated differences between male and female human behavior and
biology they should show up in the brain. The genitals start in the same place and end up
looking different, the brain does not. Our brains are pretty much the same. Male brains are
a bit bigger than females (like their bodies) and females brains stop growing earlier than
males (as with their bodies). However, whatever one may believe about other organs, in the
case of healthy brains, size really does NOT matter one iota. There also might be a few
differences in a small part of the brain called the straight gyrus (need more testing in this
one). Other than these minor aspects there are no consistent and replicated reliable
differences in male and female brains; it is a human brainbut how we use it is another
matter.

4) Hormones make the difference

Everyone thinks that males and females have different hormonestestosterone for men and
estrogen for women. Nope, all the actual hormones in males and females are the same:
there are no male-only or female-only hormones. Both men and women can get a flood of
testosterone when they get into a fight or take part in an exhilarating sports match. Both
men and women can get a flood of oxytocin and prolactin when they pick up a newborn
baby. There can be differences in the levels, patterns, and impacts of some of these
hormones in male and female bodies, but individual variation is often more important than
the variation between the sexes.

5) Men are more aggressive than women

It all depends what you mean by aggression. Men and women are not different in
expressing anger and general aggression, but men are more likely to use physical
aggression overall. The sexes are more or less the same when aggressing towards one
another, but men are larger and, usually, stronger. Men are not naturally more aggressive
than women, but can use physical aggression more effectively than women can (barring
guns and other weapons). This pattern says more about gender, societies, and male
physical size than it does about a hard-wired human nature.

6) Women are natural parents and men are not

Women give birth and men do not. Women lactate and men do not. However, both men
and women have the same potential hormonal responses to infants (with a lot of variation
between individuals). Human infants are amazingly helpless and needy and we know that
throughout our species history it has taken a lot of people to raise kids. Human bodies and
minds are capable of parenting regardless of sex, and our entire history of success as a
species is because both males and females (of all ages) have helped raise the next
generation. Women give birth and nurse, but we can all care for children; neither sex
automatically becomes a better parent than the other.

7) Men want sex more than women

This is what most people assume however, when researchers look at what people actually
do, the data show that men and women have more or less the same amount of sex in the
same kinds of ways across the lifespan (remember it does take two to tango). But there are
some important differences in sexual interest. For example, married women report lower
interest in sex with their husbands the longer theyve been with them and younger men
report higher frequencies of masturbation and interest in visual pornography. But are these
really biological sex differences or something else? We still have a lot to learn about
sexualityand as with many other areas it looks like variation is highest between
individuals not between sexes.

8) Women want relationships more than men

Not biologically speaking Both male and female bodies respond in the same ways to
pair-bonding and there is no biological difference in patterns of attachment or desire.
However, survey data suggest that men want many more partners over their lifetime than
women. Nonetheless, if you look not at the average of male and female responses, but
rather the median (the actual middle of the range of answers), both men and women are
extremely close. This is because more men report extremely high numbers than do women
and thus their average is higher. Is this biology or maybe a bit of gender roles rearing their
 head? In reality both men and women want to be with others in a wide range of sexual and
emotional relationshipsagain individual variation is more than between the sexes.

Image: Male and female thumbprint from Shutterstock

Filed Under: Evergreen, Featured Content, Gender & SexualityTagged

With: aggression, agustin fuentes, biology, brains, gender differences, gender
performativity, hormones, men, parenting, relationships, sex, sociology, women

About Agustin Fuentes

Agustn Fuentes, trained in Zoology and Anthropology, is a Professor of Anthropology at the University
of Notre Dame. His research delves into the how and why of being human. From chasing monkeys in the
jungles and cities of Asia, to exploring the lives of our evolutionary ancestors, to examining what people
actually do across the globe, Professor Fuentes is interested in both the big questions and the small
details of what makes humans and our closest relatives tick.

Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?

1. Matthias R. Mehl1,*,
2. Simine Vazire2,
3. Nairn Ramrez-Esparza3,
4. Richard B. Slatcher3,
5. James W. Pennebaker3

+ See all authors and affiliations

Science 06 Jul 2007:

Vol. 317, Issue 5834, pp. 82
DOI: 10.1126/science.1139940

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/317/5834/82
Gender Stereotypes Can Affect Mens and
Womens Test Performance in Math, Study
Shows
Sep 25, 2006
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Research
www.nyu.edu/about/news-
publications/news/2006/september/gender_stereotypes_can_affect.html

Negative gender stereotypes can affect women's test performance in math, study shows

Sept. 20, 2006

https://news.utexas.edu/2006/09/20/communication

Gender differences in competition: evidence from a matrilineal and a

patriarchal society

5 september 2009

http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/rtfiles/finance/Gneezy-Fall-2009.pdf

http://anthropology.nd.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-by-alpha/agustin-fuentes/

Bibliografa

Ford, A., & DivineCaroline. (2011, May 30). 5 False Myths About Gender
Differences. Retrieved from Care2 Healthy Living:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-false-myths-about-gender-
differences.html

Fuentes, A. (2012, May 23). 8 Myths About Sex Differences. Retrieved from
Good Men Project: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/8-
myths-about-sex-differences/