To get to the point, my question is: what is the Church’s position on differences between the genders? I am not speaking only about gender rights, especially not in the sense of some inherent entitlement as modern people speak of it. I am specifically asking about the mental and physical differences and what they mean for social roles for the genders. Traditionally, different attributes were assigned and different roles given for men and women. Men were considered strong, brave, protective, giving, intellectual, faithful; women were considered compassionate, kind, loving, gentle, motherly, charitable, wise, devout. Men were the soldiers, the businessmen, the professionals, while women were the mothers, the wives, and workers in smaller businesses and more personal, social roles like teaching and medicine. But today, it seems that most of these traditional differences have become blended almost completely.
I am not necessarily saying this blending is wrong. I’m posting this topic precisely because I’m not sure where it is correct or not, whether morally or technically. Are gender differences that important? Can women do anything men can do (within physical capacity), and vice versa? More so, should they? As to gender rights, should women be able to serve in the military? If so, how extensive should their roles be, e.g. frontlines or support? I would greatly appreciate information on these topics. Thank you all and God bless.
My own opinion is that individuals should be allowed to try to do any job that they can qaulify for, and want to do, regardless of gender.
My experience in the military is that there are many jobs that women do as well or better than men. There are some jobs which they have difficulty qualifying for, on average. For example, the physical training standard for female had to be relaxed, in order for them to qualify as Marines. To me, anyone who cannot meet the more rigorous standards set for men should not be in close combat. Another example, is that there are female aviators. They are equal to men. However, when the first women were trained to fly the F-14 aircraft, my understanding is that they all washed out, because they did not have the lower body strength and physical stamina to fly the plane well enough. The Navy moved them to other aircraft quietly, in order to avoid public relations issues around women’s rights. This is what a pilot tells me who was a trainer at the time for F-14’s. Technology, such as “fly by wire”, improved flight suits, computerized controls, have reduced the strength and physical stamina requirements, while putting added mental stresses on a fighter pilot.
Men have better spatial orientation without landmarks, where women have a better recollection and orientation to landmarks. This is seen as an evolutionary adaption to the tradition of women staying close to home to care for offspring, and therefore surviving if they could remember the location of that good food source near the home, while men wandered off long distances to hunt. A sub captain and a fighter pilot need to think of a battle space in 3D, in new surroundings with no landmarks. So, one might expect males to perform better, on average, under actual operations or combat conditions. I don’t know if this has been studied, or not. The bottom line though, is personal ability, aptitude and motivation. Every person varies, regardless of gender.
On the nurturing issue, one of the some of the more intriguing studies on same sex couples raising children has been that there is some evidence that the children raised by lesbian couples are healthier by every psychological measure than any other gender combination. This is seen as being do to the greater nurturing capacity on average of two “mothers” rather than only one in a household. I work in medicine, and I can tell you that there are many very nurturing males who work in this field. There was a time when men were expected not to be nurses, and women were expected not to be physicians. So the sword cuts both ways.
I don’t know of any moral or ethical objection that the Church would have over any gender working in any profession, except that it does concern itself with temptation and scandal. So, there might be some opposition to a male locker room attendant in a female facility, etc… But that might be changing too, as we have seen with coaches and reporters who claim that their access should be equal to men for professional reasons. It is true, that nobody has ever objected to male medical professionals treating females, or females treating males. The bottom line is professionalism, and mutual respect.
There were some concerns about living quarters in combat. The only situations I heard of where mixed genders occupied close quarters was in a few army units during the Iraq invasion. The word was that everyone was professional about it all, and there were no problems. Living conditions can be extremely close. Tank crews pretty much lived in their tanks for days at a time. Marines don’t leave each others sight to defecate while on the move, due to the risk of ambush if one goes off behind a rock or tree. So, there is not much modesty allowed. This might be a consideration.
Also, there is 