In general, do women think differently than men?

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Case in point: The Supreme Court ruling on Abortion, and the latest ruling on Same Sex Marriage, and the part played by women and some men, including Catholics.
 
There’s lots of evidence that there tend to be specific differences in men and women’s brains, so it stands to reason that they tend to think differently.
 
Heqq yeah.

While men and women are not sexually dimorphic, in the mind we are almost distinct subspecies.

IMNAAHO!!!

ICXC NIKA
 
Men and women are definitely different ,and yet the same,
can be confusing at times,
 
I don’t know if the fundamental cognitive processes are any different, but what there is a clear difference in is prioritization. Physical sciences are recently confirming what everybody already knew.

Women tend to focus on people, relationships, and social dynamics more (hence the infamous stereotype - which Hollywood and shows love to exploit and exaggerate for its entertainment-value - of men saying things that offend the woman but goes over his own head: he simply doesn’t value what she values, at least not to the same degree). One person’s triviality is another person’s sacred cow, and vice versa.

Men focus more on - at their worst - objects, and focus more on - at their best - ideas and concepts. This is why, even in a completely gender equal society, the tendency of paragons of sciences and mathematics (and theology) being male isn’t going to go away. I am 100% positive. Even if 60%+ of people graduating college are female, the vast majority of paragons are still going to be male. The male mind has the appetite to obsess over these complexities that the female mind doesn’t. It’s not necessarily a question of a difference of ability so much as it is question of a difference of tenacity and prioritization. The male mind more easily floats 100,000 miles above the surface of the Earth and becomes consumed in abstract thought. Women are more practical towards immediate affairs. It might even be reflected in the perceptions of so many ancient religions, where the Earth is associated with mother, and the Sky with father.
 
Yes, we think differently. I remember being really scared after getting married about the way he thinks… I’m not sure he was thinking that I even had a thought… But, some of the stuff that he thought was funny was NOT funny to me and it took years for us to get used to each other in our ways of thinking. We agree more often now because I know where he’s coming from and often we reach the same conclusion at the same time. Still, I keep telling myself he sees it “this” way because that’s how his mind works.

talk about confusing!
 
Brain Games on the Science Channel had a couple of episodes highlighting the difference in male vs female brains. Quite a bit of difference in some cases. Very interesting group of programs.

Is one better? Not necessarily, just different.

Blessings,
Stephie
 
I once heard that while individual men and women share many similarities (and even some men may think like women and some women think like men) as groups, they do think differently.

As a whole, men have a tendency to focus on justice, defense, honor, order, independence, abstract ideas, etc.

While women (as a whole) have a tendency towards mercy, shelter, kindness, nurturing, caring for family and others, social interaction, attention to detail, etc.

But I think mercy vs justice is the profound part. The Church must be 100% for mercy and 100% for moral demand (divine law, divine order & divine justice). Just like the Chur he must have both to be orthodox, a family (the domestic Church) must have both to reflect the Church. The mother is the face of mercy while the father is the face of justice.

Kids often learn caring from mom and responsibility from dad, poise from mom, honor from dad.
 
I’ve read that the difference is that men tend to concentrate on one idea at a time. In a focused way. Whereas women can relate a lot of different ideas at once. So the analogy given was that a man has to refile each idea after he’s examined it. Whereas a woman has all the files open on her desk. All the time. I don’t know. But it’s something to think about. And I mean I would try to figure out how it would affect every part of the relationship. I really would. But I’m sort of busy putting this file away.

Peace.

-Trident
 
In terms of IQ, men have more variance. This means that there are more men in the extreme ends of the IQ scale while women tend to cluster around the mean.
 
TK421 said:
I don’t know if the fundamental cognitive processes are any different, but what there is a clear difference in is prioritization. Physical sciences are recently confirming what everybody already knew.

Women tend to focus on people, relationships, and social dynamics more (hence the infamous stereotype - which Hollywood and shows love to exploit and exaggerate for its entertainment-value - of men saying things that offend the woman but goes over his own head: he simply doesn’t value what she values, at least not to the same degree). One person’s triviality is another person’s sacred cow, and vice versa.

Men focus more on - at their worst - objects, and focus more on - at their best - ideas and concepts. This is why, even in a completely gender equal society, the tendency of paragons of sciences and mathematics (and theology) being male isn’t going to go away. I am 100% positive. Even if 60%+ of people graduating college are female, the vast majority of paragons are still going to be male. The male mind has the appetite to obsess over these complexities that the female mind doesn’t. It’s not necessarily a question of a difference of ability so much as it is question of a difference of tenacity and prioritization. The male mind more easily floats 100,000 miles above the surface of the Earth and becomes consumed in abstract thought. Women are more practical towards immediate affairs. It might even be reflected in the perceptions of so many ancient religions, where the Earth is associated with mother, and the Sky with father.
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Yes. Women are in some sense the glue of the community and in a smaller case the family. My mother told me that in a marriage it is the woman who does the emotional maintenance of the marriage. Frankly speaking, as someone with Aspergers who is also female, social relationships are a challenge to me.

To me dealing with social situations is sort of like walking late into a room where everyone is playing a game and nobody explains the rules of the game to you. You are expected to play and sooner or later find yourself in deep trouble because you broke some unknown rule.
 
Those are average default positions.

Every man and woman is called to be their real selves and develop right too. Are most young men and women these days taught to “dumb it all down”? Surely all men and women are called to honour the purpose of the gift of language and not let what is between their ears turn to mush - that will help them IN their relating, construction, everything they do.

Not many men and not many women think like me but I particularly value it when they do. To those that don’t who I need to have in my life, I try to model slowing down and deepening.

I think concrete. It’s a gift and a strength that most men and women neglect, but some don’t.

Since I had workplace coaching and certain reading, I have developed my spatial and visual thinking. I love to have all the issues spread out before me in parallel and overlapping.

In impatience or pain some people have to sweep issues off the table all the time, as if their mother needs to lay tea at 4 o’clock.

I’m also better at mental filing, since I got coloured box files on my shelves at home!
 
Sarcelle said:
Yes. Women are in some sense the glue of the community and in a smaller case the family. My mother told me that in a marriage it is the woman who does the emotional maintenance of the marriage. Frankly speaking, as someone with Aspergers who is also female, social relationships are a challenge to me.

To me dealing with social situations is sort of like walking late into a room where everyone is playing a game and nobody explains the rules of the game to you. You are expected to play and sooner or later find yourself in deep trouble because you broke some unknown rule.
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A lady in Jerusalem once told me that while her husband was the head of her family, he knew that she was the neck.

ICXC NIKA
 
Absolutely. DH and I have several rentals. He deals with “stuff”-- ie, renovation, repairs, etc— and I deal with the people and paperwork end of things. We are north-and-south different in the way we approach a situation.

He’s very cut-and-dried. What does the lease say? Have they done it? Is rent paid? No? Good-bye.

I’m much more emotional and I tend to overthink things. What time of year is it? Wow, if I don’t get someone in by Halloween, it’ll probably stay vacant until February. Maybe I should work with them through the winter, so at least the house will be heated and lived in, and rent might be late a few times, but they’re good about getting caught up and paying the late fees. They’re working really hard and have a lot going on. It’s tough being in their situation. I want to see them succeed. I teach their kids in school and I see them at the grocery store. How can we make this work for everyone?

I’ve had a number of expensive lessons that I need to modify my thinking more along the lines of DH’s thinking if I’m going to have a successful business. But my inclination is always towards “how can we work together to make everyone succeed”, and his reasoning starts with, “Are they doing what they promised to do?”
 
Vic_Taltrees_UK said:
Those are average default positions.

Every man and woman is called to be their real selves and develop right too. Are most young men and women these days taught to “dumb it all down”? Surely all men and women are called to honour the purpose of the gift of language and not let what is between their ears turn to mush - that will help them IN their relating, construction, everything they do.

Not many men and not many women think like me but I particularly value it when they do. To those that don’t who I need to have in my life, I try to model slowing down and deepening.

I think concrete. It’s a gift and a strength that most men and women neglect, but some don’t.

Since I had workplace coaching and certain reading, I have developed my spatial and visual thinking. I love to have all the issues spread out before me in parallel and overlapping.

In impatience or pain some people have to sweep issues off the table all the time, as if their mother needs to lay tea at 4 o’clock.

I’m also better at mental filing, since I got coloured box files on my shelves at home!
Click to expand...
Couldn’t help noticing your slogan “Slow is the new quick, as tortoises have long known” (Gonzalez-1961) A turtle walked down a dark alley and was mugged by a gang of snails. The police asked the turtle what happened, the turtle answered, “I don’t know, it happened so fast” (couldn’t resist:D) Back to some serious stuff.
 
Any difference in method of thinking is, in general, the result of societal conditioning and gender-stereotyping. A higher-IQ, and a greater access to media and education generally leads to a greater overlap in what either sex spends their time thinking on, since the person is more likely to scrutinize arbitrary gender-roles.

And before you far-righters come in with the whole TOTB spiel - it’s catholic teaching that men and women are intellectually equal.
 
QuidVeritasEst said:
And before you far-righters come in with the whole TOTB spiel - it’s catholic teaching that men and women are intellectually equal.
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Not that I think women are intellectually inferior to men, but you’re making this up. There is no such thing as official Catholic teaching towards non-theological/salvific subject matter, and there never will be. It’s like saying that it is “Catholic teaching” that washing your hands and eating fruits & vegetables guards you from disease, or that it is Catholic teaching that pretzels are made from grain, or that it is Catholic teaching that metal is a conductor, or that it is Catholic teaching that Columbus landed in America in 1492. These are all subjects of other academia and not something the Catholic Church has any voice in, in terms of binding authority. They are things we investigate & comprehend as human beings.

It is official Catholic teaching that each human possesses an infinite dignity by nature of possessing a rational soul. Intelligence is a set of corporal attributes and it has no bearing on this theological subject whatsoever (i.e. a severely mentally and physically handicapped unborn child is equal in dignity to Mozart).
 
TK421 said:
Not that I think women are intellectually inferior to men, but you’re making this up. There is no such thing as official Catholic teaching towards non-theological/salvific subject matter, and there never will be. It’s like saying that it is “Catholic teaching” that washing your hands and eating fruits & vegetables guards you from disease, or that it is Catholic teaching that pretzels are made from grain, or that it is Catholic teaching that metal is a conductor. These are all subjects of other academia and not something the Catholic Church has any voice in in terms of binding authority. They are things we investigate & comprehend as human beings.

It is official Catholic teaching that each human possesses an infinite dignity by nature of possessing a rational soul. Intelligence is a set of corporal attributes and it has no bearing on this theological subject whatsoever (i.e. a severely mentally and physically handicapped unborn child is equal in dignity to Mozart).
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I think that’s a pedantic reply. What I meant was that there’s no inherent bias to the female or male mind that should, in general, prohibit one form taking public office or sharing in government or intellectual matters. It has been stated by the Church that men and women ought to participate in public life in equal measure.
 
QuidVeritasEst said:
I think that’s a pedantic reply. What I meant was that there’s no inherent bias to the female or male mind that should, in general, prohibit one form taking public office or sharing in government or intellectual matters. It has been stated by the Church that men and women ought to participate in public life in equal measure.
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It isn’t pedantic because what you said, taken at face value, has horrific implications. If intelligence - or any other utilitarian quality under the sun- is what determines human dignity, then human beings are no greater than the sum of their parts, and evils such as abortion or even culling the handicapped have merit to them.

The dignity of the human person is in relation to God creating them with a rational soul. Nothing else. This is a theological truth that is not dependent on any physical or social science.

Not that I think you support or believe in any of those things, but that is what your speech was saying.
 
TK421 said:
I don’t know if the fundamental cognitive processes are any different, but what there is a clear difference in is prioritization. Physical sciences are recently confirming what everybody already knew.

Women tend to focus on people, relationships, and social dynamics more (hence the infamous stereotype - which Hollywood and shows love to exploit and exaggerate for its entertainment-value - of men saying things that offend the woman but goes over his own head: he simply doesn’t value what she values, at least not to the same degree). One person’s triviality is another person’s sacred cow, and vice versa.

Men focus more on - at their worst - objects, and focus more on - at their best - ideas and concepts. This is why, even in a completely gender equal society, the tendency of paragons of sciences and mathematics (and theology) being male isn’t going to go away. I am 100% positive. Even if 60%+ of people graduating college are female, the vast majority of paragons are still going to be male. The male mind has the appetite to obsess over these complexities that the female mind doesn’t. It’s not necessarily a question of a difference of ability so much as it is question of a difference of tenacity and prioritization. The male mind more easily floats 100,000 miles above the surface of the Earth and becomes consumed in abstract thought. Women are more practical towards immediate affairs. It might even be reflected in the perceptions of so many ancient religions, where the Earth is associated with mother, and the Sky with father.
Click to expand...
The only reason studies might find basis for this lack-of-parity is because those subject to the study are inherently biased by an upbringing which has encouraged them onto certain paths, and glorified certain behaviours, based on gender.

Also, it is quite often the case that female-paragons, such as Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace, are afforded less exposure for their work than men, purely because women were seen as being unfit to speak on subjects of import, since in the past 3000 years, societies have been patriarchal. You might be certain that paragons of mathematics and hard science will be male, but that’s purely because you’ve been raised in these same stereotypes.

I really do worry about the state of Catholicism these days when you are having these sorts of juvenile, painfully biased conversations online.
TK421 said:
It isn’t pedantic because what you said, taken at face value, has horrific implications. If intelligence - or any other utilitarian quality under the sun- is what determines human dignity, then human beings are no greater than the sum of their parts, and evils such as abortion or even culling the handicapped have merit to them.

The dignity of the human person is in relation to God creating them with a rational soul. Nothing else. This is a theological truth that is not dependent on any physical or social science.
Click to expand...
It only has horrific implications in that sense of you confuse “intellectually equal”, by which of course I meant in general, (you can go to MENSA’s site and hear it from the horses mouth if you want), with “intelligence is the reason for sex-equality”.

Also, since theological truths describe objective morality, a social study conducted against what the church considers objective goods, ought to empirically demonstrate that truth.
 
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