The Differences Between the Gender's

Men and women are different in many ways. Men tend to be stronger, while women tend to be gentler. These differences appear early on in life. Multiple people have wondered whether these differences cause inequality. They also raise the question of whether they come naturally, or if they were taught in childhood.

Gender is an ever increasingly controversial subject. There are constant arguments about equality between men and women.  Many women are active in the movement of feminism. They believe that women are completely equal to men and should be treated as such. Feminism was discussed in a video I watched recently. One portion of the video particularly stood out to me. A video had been made of firefighters in training. It was very obvious that the women struggled much more than the men. Most women couldn’t set tall ladders against the side of a building, climb walls, or chop wood. After the making of this video, some firefighter training was forced to ease up on the strength tests. One woman in response to the video stated that technology should be used to make the tools easier for women to use. These ideas boggle my mind, because they both seem to demonstrate the inequality between men and women rather than make the two equals. If things must be made easier for women to do a job that men can do without help, doesn’t that show that women are “lesser” than men just as much as the firefighter video does?

               I don’t think the fact that women aren’t as strong as men makes them less important. In physical terms, men do surpass women. But women have their own strengths over men. I think it is a matter of purpose rather than a matter of equality. A woman’s purpose isn’t to do the strong jobs. It is awesome if they can and are willing to do those jobs, but not all women can. According to The Family: A Proclamation to the World, a woman’s purpose is to nurture and care for the children. A man’s purpose is to provide and preside over the family. Men and women are equal, just not in the ways people try so hard for them to be. They both have their strengths and must use those strengths to work together to create the best results.

               In another video I watched this week there were studies done observing the differences between men and women. In one study, male and female children were brought to a table that had both stereotypical boy toys and stereotypical girl toys laid on it. The children were told to pick any toy they wanted. The girls would pick the girl toys and the boys would pick the boy toys. It seems that they chose those toys because their parents had always given them those sorts of toys. Yet, some parents have desperately tried to give their children all sorts of toys, ignoring stereotypes. The children would still treat the toys stereotypically. This makes it seem that differences are born rather than developed. Another factor supporting this idea is that girls and boys act differently only hours after being born.

               In another study, a man or a woman was brought into a room. While in the room, they were told they were just waiting for the study to begin, when in reality their time spent in the room was the study. The room was full of small items. While a woman was in the room, she would touch and look at the items. The men mostly ignored them. After leaving the room, the men and women were asked what was in the room. The women could say exactly what and where things were in the room. The men didn’t remember.

               Almost all of the studies done showed that there are many differences between men and women. These differences need not be chastised but celebrated. The world would be a boring place if men and women were the same. Difference is a good thing, so we should act like it is.