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Effect of biological differences between the sexes.
Ok, despite my feminism thread's descent into what occasionally verged on stupidity, it did raise some interesting issues. I believe that the most interesting of such issues was that concerning biological differences between men and women. I therefore would like to start with two lines of discussion: What the biological differences (not including reproductive organs since that is obvious) are. The effects that the biological differences (including reproductive organs) make to personality traits, talents or career preferences/suitabilities in adult life with comparison to the effect of biological differences within the genders and people's upbringing.

We know that there tends to be trends in the gender ratio in certain areas/professions but those are not the subject of the debate and would be better to not bring up unless they present something which conflicts with the usual trends of this phenomenon. We are in part discussing the real cause of these trends so any controversial evidence about the trends would be an acceptable addition to this discussion, but make sure it isn't just that men get more technical or mathematical jobs, this is obvious.

I think I have been relatively thorough in this starter-post but if you feel more needs to be added feel free to PM me.

Have fun and stay on topic.
Good morning sweet princess
One interesting difference that I have always liked is the way that brains work between the sexes. I'm not entirely sure how much of it comes down to biology, but it's worth noting anyways.

The brains of males tend to be very compartmentalized, allowing them to focus intently on one thing at a time. This lets males get things done well and quickly. However, this usually disallows effective multitasking.

Female brains work in the opposite way. I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a mess, but it's not "organized". At least not in the same way. This sort of function is why women tend to be excellent parents, being able to keep track of multiple things at once and tend to screaming kids while remembering their entire grocery list and oh, they need to call their parents and wish them a happy 32nd anniversary.

I'll post sources when I get home
All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’'s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.
Until you post links I am extremely sceptical of this claim, I would have thought that more overlap between specialised areas of the brain would lead to more unprovoked thought, possible epilepsy or migraine and generally just things going wrong because of processes interrupting each other. The sections of the brain are not specialised to different chores, and most things like chores would probably only involve short term memory and a balance of dopamine receptors (the deficiency of which causes ADHD btw) which owed itself to not becoming overly absorbed in tasks.

Anyway, I am sure we will find out when you look for links.
Good morning sweet princess
I'm reading this book here

Haven't found yet anything specifically related to this topic but I'm pretty sure that there's something.
interesting. I might have a little read of it myself.
Good morning sweet princess
Pretty much all gender roles are based on stereotypes. A lot of these stereotypes have biological/evolutionary roots. Last semester, in my educational sociology class, I did an essay on why there's more female teachers than men (especially in primary education). I found that the main reason behind this was that women were perceived as being more nurturing/caring. It turns out that this stereotype developed because during prehistory (and after) women were in charge of domestic issues, whilst men were in charge of going outside and hunting. Why didn't women do the hunting? Biological differences. Men are far stronger, far more capable of hunting. On the flipside, women have finer motor neuron control, which translated into them being more more precise with their hands, which is part of why the stereotype around women being more crafty (in a technical sense) exists.

Basically, a lot of the stereotypes and gender roles that exist around men and women are founded from biology and evolution.


Disclaimer: Before anyone jumps down my throat for being a SJW (as Pig likes to say) or a white knight (Hyde's preferred insult), I'm not using the word stereotype with any negative implications. A stereotype is just a generalisation about a group of people, true or not. It's just about how people perceive other people. So, to answer the OP, biological differences in sex affects how people perceive the different genders.
Last edited by Ele; Feb 1, 2015 at 09:05 AM.
Originally Posted by hawkesnightmare View Post
One interesting difference that I have always liked is the way that brains work between the sexes. I'm not entirely sure how much of it comes down to biology, but it's worth noting anyways.

The brains of males tend to be very compartmentalized, allowing them to focus intently on one thing at a time. This lets males get things done well and quickly. However, this usually disallows effective multitasking.

Female brains work in the opposite way. I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a mess, but it's not "organized". At least not in the same way. This sort of function is why women tend to be excellent parents, being able to keep track of multiple things at once and tend to screaming kids while remembering their entire grocery list and oh, they need to call their parents and wish them a happy 32nd anniversary.

I'll post sources when I get home

I found something which might back up your claim:Review of gender differences in the Human Brain.
Men appear to have more gray matter, made up of active neurons, and women more of the white matter responsible for communication between different areas of the brain. In women's brains, the neurons are packed in tightly, so that they're closer together. Some women even have as many as 12 percent more neurons than men do. These neurons are densely crowded on certain layers of the cortex, namely the ones responsible for signals coming in and out of the brain, and these differences were present from birth.

And Ele, as to your claim about motor neurones and how they lead to women being more precise read sentence about the Cerebellum in the link I posted above, it says that men on average have better posture and balance.

To be honest there is not much to discuss about what the neurological differences are now that we can just check the link, perhaps we should move onto what effect they have on societal roles (as Ele did in his last post) and whether there are any larger factors contributing to these roles.
Good morning sweet princess
Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
Until you post links I am extremely sceptical of this claim, I would have thought that more overlap between specialised areas of the brain would lead to more unprovoked thought, possible epilepsy or migraine and generally just things going wrong because of processes interrupting each other. The sections of the brain are not specialised to different chores, and most things like chores would probably only involve short term memory and a balance of dopamine receptors (the deficiency of which causes ADHD btw) which owed itself to not becoming overly absorbed in tasks.

Anyway, I am sure we will find out when you look for links.

Turns out that specific scenario was actually part of a comedy routine, and nobody bothered to tell me for 5+ years. HOWEVER. I did find this.
Se you can see in the provided image, male brains tend to be wired front to back, which allows all senses to be engaged in whatever he is doing at the time. Communication between hemispheres is a bit lacking, but this mainly affects language and the creative combining with the logical/sciency. Female brains have tons of connections in the frontal lobe area between hemispheres, which allows for a huge leg up on language, and one of those orange lines goes straight into the limbic system, which is the center for emotion, long term memory and smell, among a few other things. This implies that a good number of the actions that involve the frontal lobe are pumped directly into the (literal and figurative) center of the brain.
All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’'s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.
Originally Posted by protonitron View Post
And Ele, as to your claim about motor neurones and how they lead to women being more precise read sentence about the Cerebellum in the link I posted above, it says that men on average have better posture and balance.

To be honest there is not much to discuss about what the neurological differences are now that we can just check the link

No, I'm pretty sure of my argument. I don't think you understand motor skills enough. I decided to do some more research anyway.

Men and women differ in motor skill ability. In general, men are better at gross motor skills while women are better at fine motor skills. Gender differences in brain physiology are often cited by scientists to explain these differences.

Although women tend to have better fine motor skills, the cerebellum has a larger volume in males than in females

Women have better fine motor skills (helps with domestic activities) and men have better gross motor skills (helps with hunting). Even though in the male brain, the cerebellum is bigger, that doesn't translate into an advantage against womens' fine motor skills.

An example of men's good motor skills is throwing and running. This vid explains it funnily. Skip ahead to 37:19.
Last edited by Ele; Feb 3, 2015 at 02:41 PM.