GENDER DIFFERENCES

Gender Differences



Gender Differences

1.Culture rather than biology is where the real difference between women and men is to be found. Discuss

It's far too common for people to see a biological difference between people and assume that, therefore, the difference is innate and was there from the beginning. Whether the differences are between men and women or blacks and whites, just to cite a couple of popular comparisons, biological differences might be a consequence of the environment, not a consequence of genes. (Henrietta 1994, 15)

This is especially true when it comes to the brain which is so plastic and readily changeable depending upon conditions. It's arguable, perhaps, that more of a brain's ability is due to early environmental factors than genetics because our brains have had to adapt so much over the millennia. The more rigid a brain's capabilities are, the less likely it will be able to adapt and adjust to new skills.

Genetic and hormonal factors can't be excluded, of course, but environmental factors must be excluded first (they're certainly easier to control for than genes) before someone goes around spouting off about the so-called “natural” abilities of men and women, blacks and whites. Anyone who tries without factoring out environmental issues is just making a fool of themselves. (Lynne 1999, 85)

Differences among the world's nations in demographic, economic, and household conditions are assumed to have profound effects on social structure and processes, including family, marital, and gender development. Cultural values and beliefs are often used to identify cultural groups and differentiate among them (Marín & Gamba, 2003, 52). Cultural values are shared by a group of people and communicated from one generation to the next, which means that values are both maintained and possibly changed as individuals interact.

Acculturation, a process of cultural change and learning that individuals experience as a result of prolonged intercultural contact (e.g., Berry & Sam, 2007, 88), could therefore be expected to modify cultural values. This study examined cross-cultural differences in cultural values of various ethnic groups living in the Netherlands; more specifically we addressed differences in family, marital, and gender-role values among Dutch mainstreamers and members of the four largest groups of non-Western immigrants in the Netherlands (Turks, Moroccans, Surinamers, and Antilleans; these terms are used here to avoid the longer double ethnicity indicators such as Turkish Dutch).

The Dutch society provides an interesting context for studying these values because the Netherlands became a culturally more diverse society in the last decades and cultural differences of mainstreamers and immigrant groups are large.

Fermnists have recently had much to say about difference. One aspect of the debate has been a continuation of an old argument-about how different women are from men, what such differences may be due to, and whether they require that laws and other aspects of public policy should treat women any differently from men.' Another, newer, aspect of the debate is about differences among women. It is "essentialist," some say, to talk about women, the problems of women, and especially the problems ...