>> Only by facing reality as clearly as possible can we even begin to make changes that will have a real positive impact on everyone.
While I agree with this sentiment and appreciate all the research shared, I'm not sure a flood of scientific studies is going to be clearly accessible to the significant segment of the general public that doesn't have the training or time to process this information. The quickest and simplest way to "face reality" is not to drown people with long detailed academic studies but to engage with people based on their experiences and needs. I don't need to read a scientific article about what females want on average in a relationship to know that my female partner might be needing more emotional connection, I can just ask her, or encourage her to share that with me. I also agree with the author that people can make rigid assumptions based on gender that are not factual (such as the assumption that there are no personality differences across the sexes); but do the public and the people making policies at the institutional level need to absorb a series of lengthy academic studies to consider the possibility that their assumptions might be wrong? Do we really have hope that this is how things happen? It is simpler to be conscious of what is fact and what is assumption in your own mind and ensure that you leave room for the uncertainty, and to ask this of people who have power.
Well said, thanks. I get squeamish when statistics are used on “the sexes” because no one is “average” and outliers exist in huge numbers when you’ve got billions of us walking around. Socially, shifting away from assumptions based on phenotypical expression can only be a good thing, and I don’t think we need to pour over research on the phenotypes to get there.
While I agree with this sentiment and appreciate all the research shared, I'm not sure a flood of scientific studies is going to be clearly accessible to the significant segment of the general public that doesn't have the training or time to process this information. The quickest and simplest way to "face reality" is not to drown people with long detailed academic studies but to engage with people based on their experiences and needs. I don't need to read a scientific article about what females want on average in a relationship to know that my female partner might be needing more emotional connection, I can just ask her, or encourage her to share that with me. I also agree with the author that people can make rigid assumptions based on gender that are not factual (such as the assumption that there are no personality differences across the sexes); but do the public and the people making policies at the institutional level need to absorb a series of lengthy academic studies to consider the possibility that their assumptions might be wrong? Do we really have hope that this is how things happen? It is simpler to be conscious of what is fact and what is assumption in your own mind and ensure that you leave room for the uncertainty, and to ask this of people who have power.