By Adaora Onyechere
The view that females are gentle, empathic and caring, whereas males are rational, logical and dominant, is a misconception.
At first blush defining gender seems simple enough. Are you “gender normal,” as in male or female? Do you feel confident enough in your identity to claim outright allegiance to one of the two most common earthbound varieties allegedly hailing from Venus or Mars?
it is quite comical in its expression as it is serious in thought.
The dictionary definition for gender as a noun is “either of the two sexes (male or female) especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.”
For much of history women were treated as men’s intellectual inferiors. Victorians believed that women’s reproductive health would be damaged if they strained their brains at university. A century ago few countries allowed women to vote. In 2005 Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard University, got into trouble for suggesting that one reason for the scarcity of women among scientists at elite universities may be due to “issues of intrinsic aptitude”. Some scientists rushed to his defence, citing research that suggested that this was true.
British journalist, author and broadcaster Angela Saini in her book Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong gave an illuminating account of how science has stoked the views that innate preferences and abilities differ between men and women. Ms Saini unpicks some of the most influential studies that have framed women as gentle, caring and empathetic and men as strong, rational and dominant differences attributed to biology and evolution. A striking pattern emerges, almost all of the prominent scientists behind these studies are men, whereas much of the growing, more recent research that disputes them is done by women quite revealing as kindly put by Ms Salini.
Well in my thoughts and going further the preclusion of form and mental strength or designating women as the weaker sex is biologically unfair, this is a gender identity that needs to change because in the real sense of the word they are actually stronger. The natural sex ratio at birth is skewed in favour of boys, but they are more likely than girls to be born preterm and die in their first years of life. Women live longer than men and recover faster when they fall ill. Science is yet to find out why.
Men’s brains are 8–13% bigger than women’s. In the 19th century that was seen as proof that men were the cleverer sex or so was assumed. Since then, reams of research have shown that differences between the sexes in cognitive abilities or motor skills are very small or non-existent. When differences are found, they are not always in favour of the same sex and may shift over time. Girls in some countries are now better at maths than boys, for example. In sub-saharan Africa the ratio of boys to girls among children who are exceptionally talented at maths has plummeted since the 1970s. The brain, like other organs, is simply proportionate in size to men’s bigger bodies.
Yet scientists keep searching for sex differences in the brain, these days with imaging machines that measure brain activity. This line of research relies on human eyes looking for patterns, and also on imperfect technology (scans of a dead fish have shown dots of “activity” in its brain). Such studies grab headlines when they juxtapose cherry-picked images of male and female brains that look dramatically different from each other. Any links to behaviours or proclivities are purely speculative, yet the media like the fiction.
In fact for me no two brains are the same: each is a mosaic of features, some of which are more common in men and others in women. According to one analysis of studies on sex differences in the brain, the proportion of people whose brains had purely masculine or feminine features was between zero and 8%.
“Inferior” rounds up compelling evidence against several other stereotypes that cast women as natural caregivers, sexually coy and dependent for survival on men because that is how evolution supposedly intended it.
Observations of primates and isolated tribes suggest that humans’ patriarchal order may have evolved by accident rather than out of evolutionary necessity. From there, it is easy to see how social norms have ensured that men and women are groomed into separate, gendered roles.
By giving dolls to girls and footballs to boys, notes “we feed our babies fantasies in pink or blue.” Infants have no innate preference for either. But they respond positively to what makes their caregivers happy.
Women have come a long way since the days when they were rarely seen in universities, Financial houses, Mining, Flying planes or even laboratories. “Inferior” is the story of how science made the journey tougher — until now.
The need to see the times as they have evolved to shed more light on issue such as the vulnerability of the term weaker is important in helping women understand they can do more.
Despite evidence to the contrary, women continue to be referred to and treatedas the “weaker sex.” And despite #MeToo and #TimesUp perhaps even in response tothe current business, political and social environment in the Nigeria still strongly reflects this (MIS-)perception. Women continue to be underestimated and underrepresented on corporate boards and in executive suites but also in higher education and federal and state government leadership roles. News coverage of women candidates for President Nigeria has been little to none.
Like women, the impact of this MISperception is underestimated. The current still-male-dominated environment is based in and exploitative of fear, aggressive, competitive behaviors and petty anger and hostility. How different would things be if we lined up our reality with the data? With the #facts? Women’s strengths in key areas offer society invaluable opportunities. What if the healthier, more educated and reasoning women were given more opportunities to be their authentic selves in positions of leadership and power? What if we redefined “stronger” and “weaker” to incorporate more qualities and attributes than just physical size and strength?
A new narrative is needed. It is incorrect to define women as the “weaker sex” when we define it based on a more complete set of beneficial qualities and attributes, i.e. strengths. I challenge all of us both men and women to broaden our definition of strength and challenge our personal notions of the strength that is needed in our current context. Given our strengths, women are the “stronger sex” in the areas most well suited for taking us literally and figuratively into a new, improved age.
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