Among a Miss DoLittle and a Mr KnowAll who is smarter and who is wiser? One is different from the other. They apply different strategies to solve their problems. Mr KnowAll thinks he is smarter. Miss DoLlittle thinks she is wiser. What the studies and observations say?
Men are better with ‘line and rule’. Women are better with ‘heart and imagination’. For example, if the task can be accomplished either by representing geometry or by representing individual landmarks, women will rely on landmarks and men on geometry. Specialised skills, such as spatial awareness, are generally better in men. Women score higher in terms of language development and emotional intelligence. Man’s emotions are admired. Women’s emotions are considered overblown. When men cry, it is believed that their feelings are genuine and legitimate. Women underplay their intelligence, men overstate it. Men think they know women, and try to use this knowledge to conquer them. Women first know themselves, and then try to understand men. Men are more confident about their abilities. Men with average intelligence think that they are quite clever. On the other hand, even a very smart woman thinks her intelligence is OK. Women believe in sharing a problem, and expect acknowledgement. Men want to offer solutions, but don’t like to discuss problems. Men have a lower flashpoint for increasing heart rate arousal, and it takes them longer to recover. Women can distract themselves and calm down faster. Women raise issues more harshly in unhappy relationships, and more gently in happy relationships. Although a man’s brain is larger, a woman uses more of her brain when she thinks. Risk-taking capability is greater in men. Women are more risk-averse. Research says, aggressive risk-taking might have given men an advantage in finding mates, while women might have become more risk-averse to protect their offspring. Men and women invest differently. Perhaps, women are better investors. Men, generally are overconfident; they are in a hurry to do things even when they are not sure what they are going to do. Women also try to do many things without knowing, but are less afraid to acknowledge their shortcomings. Men hear much more in the meaningless ‘noise’. Women seem to possess better ability to ignore such noises.
Woman is not only the future, but also the past of the man. Embryologists say that “Nature’s first intention was to create a female.” They say, “For its first 35 days in the womb, every human foetus is female.” How did the female foetus become a man? To explain this, perhaps, we can use the perception of ‘emergent properties’; properties that emerge at a certain level of complexity, but do not exist at lower levels. Using this perception we can say, once the simple female foetus achieved a certain level of complexity, it switched to a more complex male.
It is better to be both smart and wise, but wise is not necessarily smart, and vice versa. It is said that a smart man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend, and a wise woman is one who can find such a man. Both the propositions are interesting, but getting a smart man is as difficult as getting a wise woman. Generalisations are always risky. “The differences among women and the differences among men are much greater than the differences between men and women.” Conflicts arising out of gender discrimination can only be resolved by an understanding that men and women have the same worth as human beings.
School Of Upna Life 