Women and men are the same, but different

It is clear that women and men are equal, but different. Obviously, we are equal in law, we have the same rights, but we are diverse. But to what extent are we diverse? It seems obvious that we are different in many ways. Today, Women’s Day, we want to add elements to better understand how women and men look alike or are different.

Unfortunately, inequality of law is still a reality in many respects, and we must continue to fight for it not to be so. We hope and collaborate in the fight for equality, and we stand by it without rest. At the same time, although it may sound contradictory at first, we will say that in some respects we are not equal and we develop the why. First of all, the brains of women and men are different, both in terms of wiring and volume, and this could generate different functions.

Humans are a species of bipedal primates in the hominidae family, which sounds like a rather uniform group, and certainly, the degree of sexual dimorphism between females and males is rather low, but what is relevant is that we are much more diverse at the individual level than at a group (of men or women) in relation to personality, character or the skills, very different for each of us.

Stereotypes tell us that women are not good at math and men are not good at empathy. But what does empirical science tell us about it? Recent meta-analytical studies (Figure 1) indicate that the mean difference between women and men is around 0.2 standard deviations (d = .20).

But what does it mean that the effect size for cognitive gender differences is 0.2? To do this we can see the graph below, where we can vary different parameters. By default it is configured to display this difference of 0.2.

Basically, what it means is that women and men are 92% similar. We are practically the same! This fact is known as the similarity hypothesis.

At the personality level, there is not much difference either, the average difference between all personality dimensions is 0, 19. We are in the same. Note that the overlap is virtually identical.

As for the orientation towards people or things, this is where the biggest differences are (d = 1.18 with women having more inclination towards people and men having things). In this sense, education can have a lot to do with it, but there is still a 55% overlap. That is, we look more alike than we differ!

Humans learn to do and undo, and depending on the goals, studies, education, personality and countless situations that we experience throughout the life cycle we develop a handful of skills that allow us to achieve various goals. In view of the scientific evidence, regardless of whether we are male or female, we can all become great mathematicians, butchers, doctors, nurses, physicists, engineers, hairdressers, etc., and so we could spend countless hours. As professionals, we should begin to set aside discussions of group differences to begin to look at the characteristics of each person.

Unfortunately, situations of gender bias are often raised in selection processes in the workplace. To achieve true equality in this regard, employers should consider taking into account individual skills, not whether it is a women’s or men’s job, but whether that person has the right skills to do it properly. With this assessment, we could contribute to greater equality.

There will still be some aspects in which women and men will continue to be different, and in the short term they will not be able to change. For example, surely many men would be happy to give birth and many women would be happy to give birth to men. We can only admit that we are different in many ways and we could say that even though we are not believers, thank God! And celebrate diversity as individuals.