Gender equality myth debunked

Feminists all over the world are trying to equate men and women. They demand equal job opportunities, parity of status and salaries. They have gone to the extent of opposing certain words such as poetess, authoress, actress and sculptress on the ground that they are discriminatory. They want to be called poets, authors, actors and sculptors. Males have given in to their demands.

We have the classic case of Mrs Soma Kotakadeniya who was appointed Postmaster-General a few years ago. According to media reports some people began to address her as Postmistress-General. She probably did not like the new feminine tag and preferred to be called Postmaster-General. Even when women become ministers, prime ministers and presidents they do not wish to change their titles.

Anne Moir

David Jessel

Today women are found in almost all professions including the police, army, navy and air force. Most of them enjoy parity of status and other facilities with their male counterparts. While there is a semblance of equality between males and females, some women still prefer to do one time women only jobs such as nursing. In the rural sector women do not try to enter male bastions as far as careers are concerned. Most of them want to be seamstresses, teachers, nurses, housemaids or housewives.

Sea change

For thousands of years men and women believed that they are born to do different jobs. As a result, everyone treated them as different from males. Consequently, they had been assigned different roles to play based on skills, aptitudes, perceptions and behaviour. For instance, women had an aptitude for nursing and teaching while men were good at governing and defending the country against invaders. However, the whole scenario underwent a sea change in the 1960s when gender role definitions were dismissed as a male conspiracy to dominate women. As a result, most developed countries changed their educational policies to remove gender bias from society. For instance, Israeli kibbutz did away with the traditional demarcations of male and female jobs and built a new model to suit both genders.

While men and women were thus enjoying some kind of parity of status in a new world of equality, science dropped a bombshell! Advances in brain science and empirical behaviour came up with devastating findings. Soon it was established that there is a world of difference between men and women. As Anne Moir and David Jessel put it very succinctly, the idea of gender equality was "a biological and scientific lie."

Brainsex

Their findings have shattered the myth of gender equality. Their path-breaking work Brainsex: The real difference between men and women soon became a best-seller because it was the first book that challenged gender equality. A quotation from the book would suffice to drive home the point the authors have made: "The sexes are different because their brains are different. The brain, the chief administrator and emotional organ in life, is differently constructed in men and women; it processes information in a different way, which results in different perceptions, priorities and behaviour."

The well-known rationalist of Sri Lanka Dr Abraham T. Kovoor in one of his public talks said children are born with a blank slate. He said no one is born a genius. All the knowledge is acquired from parents, teachers and the environment. However, Anne Moir and David Jessel have challenged Dr Kovoor's theory. They say that children are not born with a blank slate ready to be conditioned by others. According to them while in the womb a baby makes up its mind with the help of hormones. At this stage it is configured into a male or a female patterned brain. The foetus will become a boy when male hormones are present. In the absence of male hormones, the foetus will become a female.

New theory

The new theory that men and women have different brains is fast catching up despite feminism. In fact, John Gray wrote an amusing book entitled Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Steven Pinker has explained the new "brainsex" theory further in his powerful book entitled The Blank Slate.

According to these writers, however much we try to establish a semblance of equality between men and women, men will be men and women will be women. This is an interesting area for anyone to study. If you look at a baby boy and a baby girl you can learn a lot of gender differences. For instance, a baby boy will look at objects while baby girls will gaze at people's faces. What is more, baby girls respond well to soothing sounds while baby boys tend to be more adventurous than their female counterparts.

Even when boys grow up they begin to think of sex most of the time because their testosterone level is higher than that of girls. Even in universities male undergraduates tend to be more aggressive than females. From what we read in the media, in most of the protest rallies males predominate females. As they grow old, however, males begin to mellow faster than females.

According to psychologists, male brains are heavily compartmentalised and organised. However, female brains are generally diffused. While men are known for their single-mindedness, women develop their intuition to a great level. As Moir and Jessel explain, women cry more often then men because they are emotionally wired. However, when a man cries, there must be something seriously wrong with him! The two authors have summed up the differences in a powerful statement: "Women want a lot of sex with the man they love, while men want a lot of sex."