In case you have not noticed, men and women are different, although they are made from mostly the same parts. Evolution has a lot to do with it. Looking back to the very early days of humans, as distinguished from other primates. Humans almost everywhere seem to organize in nuclear families, man, woman and their children. Other mammals have different arrangements more like a female, her children plus some male(s). The human nuclear family is long lived, not terminated upon weaning. “A daughter’s a daughter all of her life.” There are a lot of variations including extended families and the occasional harem.
This nuclear family results in a traditional division of labor where the men hunt, fish, loot, plow and womanize. The women raise their children with some help from the men. For the gestation period there is no choice, women get pregnant and can’t delegate that part. Women are uniquely qualified to nourish babies, but some delegation has become possible. Until recently babies came in an inevitable series, sometimes called stair steps, so mothers were tied to that role, often way too closely, for too long. Necessity created a need for mothers to manage resources and squabbling children at the same time, multi-tasking. Dad might be plowing the north 40 or hunting mastodon while Mom was tending the vegetables along with the kids.
Men evolved around a different set of skills, many of which were best suited to harvesting certain food, especially food that can run away or fight back. Physical strength, fleetness of foot and endurance. The kind of endurance that makes it possible to stalk an animal for days, fight a war for weeks or plow 40 acres behind a mule. Hunting large animals requires teamwork, male bonding. Childbirth of course requires tremendous endurance, but not day after day after day like combat. Dad brought home the bacon while mom gathered the eggs and fried both.
For much of our development men and women lived with different subcultures based on their uniqueness. In our language, the noun man is often inclusive, including women and possibly children. The word human is clearly inclusive, while the word woman is quite specific, mature female. Until very recently those whose individual physical characteristics were ambiguous had to masquerade as one or the other.
The male skill set is excellent for taking charge, (grasping power) but the female skill set seems better for being in charge. Look at the successful women prime ministers, some in societies much more chauvinistic, even misogynistic than ours. Indira Gandhi saved the Republic of India and Margaret Thatcher the British economy. Female heads of state have been remarkably scandal-free and their republics remarkably COVID-free.
“Women and children first.” Recognizes that a tribe without women will soon be extinct. Women have some limitations that make it more difficult for them to be soldiers so the job falls mostly to men. That makes men seem to better qualified as peace officers and sometimes they are, but in some police situations the female skills honed by 50 million years of childrearing work better. There are many jobs where one gender or the other shows a significant edge. Women have better fine motor skills for tasks like sewing or electronic assembly. Men have an edge on gross motor skills for tasks like spear throwing, or hammering. Some differences are harder to explain. When women operate fork lifts there is less damage.
There is no particular job for which a woman or man is automatically better qualified. Almost all jobs today can be done equally well by a man or a woman. Gender does not automatically disqualify a person except perhaps as a sperm donor or birth mother. Modern medicine might be able to overcome that eerie limitation. Just as we shouldn’t vote by party, we shouldn’t hire or pay by gender.
Can a woman be president, a good president? Why not? History seems to suggest the standard is not really very high.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com