Attitude: In Politics and Management, The “Gender Gap” Is Real
By: Merrill McLoughlin
With: Tracy L. Shryer, Erica E. Goode and Kathleen McAuliffe
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1.
There is one difference between the sexes on which virtually every expert and
study agree: Men are more aggressive than women. It shows up in 2-year-olds. It
continues through school days and persists into adulthood. It is even constant across
cultures. And there is little doubt that it is rooted in biology – in the male sex hormone
testosterone.
2.
If there’s a feminine trait that’s the counterpart of male aggressiveness, it’s what
social scientists awkwardly refer to as “nurturance.” Feminists have argued that the
nurturing nature of women is not biological in origin, but rather has been drummed
into women by a society that wanted to keep them in the home. But the signs that it is
at least partly inborn are too numerous to ignore. Just as tiny infant girls respond more
readily to human faces, female toddlers learn much faster than males how to pick up
nonverbal cues from others. And grown women are far more adept than men at
interpreting facial expressions: A recent study by University of Pennsylvania brain
researcher Ruben Gur showed that they easily read emotions such as anger, sadness
and fear. The only such emotion men could pick up was disgust.
3.
What difference do such differences make in the real world? Among other
things, women appear to be somewhat less competitive – or at least competitive in
different ways – than men. At the Harvard Law School, for instance, female students
enter with credentials just as outstanding as those of their male peers. But they don’t
qualify for the prestigious Law Review in proportionate numbers, a fact some school
officials attribute to women’s discomfort in the incredibly competitive atmosphere.
4.
Students of management styles have found fewer differences than they expected
between men and women who reach leadership positions, perhaps because many
successful women deliberately imitate masculine ways. But an analysis by Purdue
social psychologist Alice Eagly of 166 studies of leadership style did find one
consistent difference: Men tend to be more “autocratic” – making decisions on their
own – while women tend to consult colleagues and subordinates more often.
5.
Studies of behavior in small groups turn up even more differences. Men will
typically dominate the discussion, says University of Toronto psychologist Kenneth
Dion, spending more time talking and less time listening.
Political Fallout
6.
The aggression-nurturance gulf even shows up in politics. The “gender gap” in
polling is real and enduring: Men are far more prone to support a strong defense and
tough law-and-order measures such as capital punishment, for instance, while women
are more likely to approve of higher spending to solve domestic social problems such
as poverty and inequality. Interestingly, there is virtually no gender gap on “women’s
The Gender Gap is Real / 2
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issues,” such as abortion and day care; in fact, men support them slightly more than
women.
7.
Applied to the female of the species, the word “different” has, for centuries,
been read to mean “inferior.” At last, that is beginning to change. And in the end, of
course, it’s not a question of better or worse. The obvious point – long lost in a
miasma of ideology – is that each sex brings strengths and weaknesses that may check
and balance the other; each is half of the human whole.
The Gender Gap is Real / 3
Questions should be answered in your own words in English, unless
otherwise indicated.
1.
What does the title itself suggest?
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2.
What feature sharply distinguishes men from women, and to what do the
authors attribute this difference?
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Answer the question below in Hebrew.
3.
What quality is immediately manifest in women?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
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4.
How do the authors differ from the feminists in their analysis of feminine
characteristics?
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5.
What thesis would Ruben Gur’s findings (paragraph 2) support?
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Answer the question below in Hebrew.
6.
What does the situation at the Harvard Law School suggest?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
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Answer the question below in Hebrew.
7.
How is the fact that women in management positions do not differ all that much
from their male counterparts accounted for? (Paragraph 4)
Answer: _________________________________________________________
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The Gender Gap is Real / 4
Answer the question below in Hebrew.
8.
The style of women managers does, however, in one sense, differ from that of
their male counterparts; just how do they differ?
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9.
How do females differ from males (paragraph 6) in their political choices?
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10. On what issues do men and women usually show the same preferences?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
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Complete the sentence below.
11. Under no circumstances should the word different be understood as either
_________________________ or ___________________________________ .