Call me a feminist, if you will, but I'm a traditional feminist. I hate the modern dualities of wanting to make women victims all the time, while simultaneously claiming women can do anything a man can do. Um... no. I believe that God created men and women to complement one another, and He did that by giving women different strengths than men.
Of course God didn't use a cookie cutter, so none of us are the same... just as individuals may be thin or plump, short or tall, athletic or brainy, etc. and so forth and so on, the strengths of men and women are also on a sliding scale, and perceptions can be altered by comparisons. The short 10-year-old child can still seem quite tall to even an unusually tall 5-year old. Likewise some women can outperform some men in areas where men are typically stronger, and vice versa with the man who is unusually strong in a more typical feminine strengths. All this to say that the following comparisons are AVERAGES, a word I will repeat often to emphasize this point. It does not mean that I or anyone else should believe for a moment that there can't be extraordinary exceptions. Human beings are nothing if not amazing in our diversity and uniqueness!
All that said, here are 3 observations I have personally made in my 50+ years of life...
1. The average man is stronger physically than the average woman.
This means he can lift, carry, push, and pull more. He is, as the saying goes, tougher than women.
However, the average woman appears to be stronger in a certain type of endurance.
This means that she can endure the pains of pregnancy and childbirth, most more than once, and also continually cope with the monthly mock labor pains and mess. She can also power through a cold or injury to continue caring for the children, and put up with unpleasant situations for a longer period of time. How many men do you know who are the primary diaper changers, or who care for sick children on a regular basis, or who volunteer to clean up the vomit and etc.? Exactly.
2. The average man is stronger in mechanical and spatial reasoning.
This is why so few women are carpenters, mechanics, engineers, pilots, and truck drivers. Of course there are exceptions, but these are the worlds of men, for the most part.
The average woman, on the other hand, is much stronger in compassion and nurturing.
This can be observed by a simple observation of all of the stay home parents, day care centers, elementary schools, and nursing homes (anywhere in the world!). The vast majority of child and elder caregivers are women. There are exceptional men who are gifted in this area, but most men do not have the type of strength it takes to care for young children or the bedridden on a day after day after day basis.
2. The average man is stronger in controlling his emotions.
We could argue that this has a cultural basis, and is learned, but if this is true it seems to be a universal cultural norm among all of humanity. Men have the emotions, of course, but are much less likely to "wear it on their sleeves," reacting with strong visible emotions.
However, the average woman is stronger in emotional stamina.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that women are so much more likely to express their emotions, so that they do not get bottled up inside, but the fact is that average women tend to "soldier on" through life much more than the men around her. This is particularly telling in suicide statistics. Some sources say that women will attempt suicide more than men, but the reason they fail is typically because they use less lethal methods, which is more of a cry for help than a serious attempt to kill oneself.
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
These are my personal observations, as stated previously. Feel free to disagree, but I just felt like writing it out because I am sick and tired of women being portrayed as either hopelessly weak or just as capable of men in every area. No. While there are some exceptions, to be sure, the average woman is going to be much happier fulfilling roles that play to her strengths. (And obviously there are many many jobs that can be fulfilled equally well by either gender.) But we as a culture need to stop devaluing the extraordinary power of women.
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