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If different preferences are related to culture, why are they seen most strongly in the societies that try hardest to eliminate differences between the sexes?
by leereeves 7y ago
If different preferences are related to culture, why are they seen most strongly in the societies that try hardest to eliminate differences between the sexes?
> They observed that the more that women have equal opportunities, the more they differ from men in their preferences.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6412/eaas9899 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6412/eaas9899
- cortesoft 7y agoI am not sure how that is related... how culture affects preferences is not just about how much a society pushes for equality. Culture is complicated, and isn't as simple as a culture supporting women or not. I am not even arguing that sexes having different preferences is necessarily bad... I am simply arguing that preferences are heavily influenced by culture.
- leereeves 7y agoIt's related because Western cultures have made a conscious effort to eliminate such influences, and yet those preferences stubbornly remain, or even grow stronger. And psychologists have reported these preferences across very different cultures throughout the world. It seems like you are stating what you'd like to think is true rather than drawing conclusions from the available evidence.
- cortesoft 7y agoI think you underestimate how much of our culture still perpetuates gender stereotypes.
- leereeves 7y agoNo, I really don't. But there's a biological reason for that: women have a choice that men do not. Many women who want to become stay-at-home (and, increasingly, single) mothers choose careers that prepare them for that (which do not include software development). Men don't really have that choice, so naturally men are overrepresented in other life choices. How many men do you know who planned to have a child and raise it on their own, without a mother, and therefore studied education and medicine to prepare to be a better primary caregiver? How could that even be made a viable option for men without forcing women to have children against their will?
- cortesoft 7y agoI know zero men who have done that... I also know zero women who have done that
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]