Let’s be honest: Men and women need each other
Photo Unsplash, Alvin Mahmudov
Opinion
My mother is a force to be reckoned with. An actual 'machine' in her own right. Regardless of the time of day, when there is work to be done, she has unwavering determination. She has inherited her resilience from my grandmother. It is a testament to her unyielding spirit.
But no matter how resilient my mother is, she is unsuitable for hard physical labour. That’s why my father usually does the heavy work (construction, repairing, and lifting), and my mother usually does the household chores (cooking, cleaning, and laundry).
While seemingly natural, my parents’ labour division raises questions. Does it hint at more profound societal implications? Is it an example of a grand scheme of labour division occurring in society? Or is my parents’ division of labour merely an anecdote?
Challenge
The Island with Bear Grylls (2014-2019), a British reality TV show, presented an exciting challenge. A group of modern people, men and women, were left separately on different islands to fend for themselves. With few supplies, they had to build dwellings, hunt, and gather, doing anything to survive the new harsh reality.
Through this pragmatic challenge, the TV show aimed to prove that men and women are equal and that women are just as capable as men to handle back-breaking situations.
While both groups struggled, the men’s group fared better overall. Indeed, men usually did better, but it is vital to question why. Was it due to inherent biological differences or societal factors? The challenge was difficult even for them, highlighting the advancements in technology that have nearly eliminated physical labour in the West.
Scrutiny
It's crucial to acknowledge the physical differences between men and women. Yes, all human beings, men and women, possess equal intrinsic value because they have been created in God’s image. But that doesn’t negate their differences. Even children learn in sixth-grade biology class that men and women look different.
What if women were not primarily made to build roads and constructions? What if they were not mainly designed to do hard and laborious jobs or go to wars like men? Just, what if? This is a simple but complex question that deserves scrutiny.
The physical, physiological, and psychological constitutions of men and women and their individual and social contributions will be essential in determining who has more outstanding merit in society.
Choices
Numerous studies have been conducted to assess and juxtapose the physical strength of both genders. The statistics indicate that women possess, on average, approximately 52% of the upper-body strength and 66% of the lower-body strength that men have. Additionally, the physiological variances between men and women, such as bone density and muscle mass, are noteworthy. For better or worse, these differences influence occupational choices between men and women.
According to Career Smart, a UK-based company that compiled a list of 318 occupations, nurses, secretaries, primary teachers, etc., are predominantly women, and mechanics, electricians, carpenters, etc., are predominantly men. And this is replicated across other occupations.
However, it's worth noting that out of the 318 occupations analysed, 204 have a gender distribution ranging from 20 per cent to 80 per cent. This highlights the significant overlap in career choices between both men and women. Though career choices differ to a certain degree, they also overlap to a high degree.
Things and people
In one of his most significant articles, Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist, The Gender Scandal: Part One (Scandinavia) and Part Two (Canada), claims that men and women are more similar than different and that personality trait differences play an essential role in occupational choices. As he puts it, “men are comparatively more interested in things and women in people.”
Many people don’t realise this, but these differences between men and women come from Adam and Eve’s sin. It is hard to imagine how life would have been if Adam and Eve had not fallen into sin. Whether these differences would have been as visible is not certain. What is certain is that things changed drastically after they sinned.
On the one hand, God told Eve, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, and in pain, you will bring forth children; your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Here is the seed that will grow and flourish in women’s career choices. No wonder more women work in fields that deal with care or upbringing, like nursing or primary school.
On the other hand, God told Adam that “[…] cursed is the ground on account of you; in hard labour, you will eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it will bring forth for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, because out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:16-19 Modern English Version)
Social recognition
The US Labor of Statistics has comprehensively studied the number of occupational injury deaths from 2003 to 2020. In 2020 alone, the ratio between the numbers was astonishing, around one woman for eleven men. While 387 women lost their lives in work-related injuries, 4377 men have died in work-related. And, though this is true, I rarely see any social recognition and appreciation for men.
Genesis 3:16-19 is the seed that will grow and flourish regarding men’s career choices. As pointed out, men do the hard and laborious jobs in society. Men are more predisposed to die while at work than women. Strangely, men are on the back burner, and that’s because they also fight wars.
While this is true, and men should be recognised and appreciated for this, women should also be recognised and appreciated for their overall social contributions. Thus, they should also receive the same social credit and appreciation as men. Moreover, stay-at-home mothers sacrifice a lot for the well-being of their families and deserve a lot of respect and gratitude for their labour.
Defying the odds
When men or women are pushed to the limit, they can rise to the occasion in ways impossible to imagine. People are surely capable of defying the odds, regardless of their gender. And while men usually do those hard and laborious jobs, some women can do them as well, if only in small percentages, as the stats show.
Just because most nurses are women, and most mechanics are men, that does not necessarily imply discrimination toward either gender. It just means that at the end of the spectrum, men and women have different propensities regarding career choices.
Because career choices overlap, it is harder to objectively claim what jobs a man or a woman should do. Regardless of sex differences, men and women should be evaluated individually based on their skills, competencies, and effort. The best man or woman should get the job.
Injustice
Hiring quotas, like the European Parliament’s decision to force stock-listed companies to have 40 per cent females as non-executive directors, no matter how well intended they might be, are an injustice. How would it be if the European Parliament made a landmark decision to force car services to have 40 per cent female mechanics? Why is the first decision reasonable, and the second one would be irrational?
The European Parliament’s decision to force companies to have 40 per cent females as non-executive directors is not convincing to me, just like it would have been if the European Parliament had forced car services to have 40 per cent female mechanics.
Pushing men or women into occupations they are not interested in infringes upon their preferences and free will, which is an injustice. The right thing to do is to let people choose their field of work as they wish, which will differ and overlap.
Outliers who are in either male or female-dominated fields, more than anything, prove that, as Jordan Peterson claimed, men and women are more the same than different. Even if they are in a small minority in their field, I support and applaud them, men or women.
Collapse
My parents’ division of labour was not merely an anecdote. It hinted at a grand scheme of labour division occurring in society and had societal implications, and rightly so. It represents a microcosm of society.
Men and women need each other; without each other, they would perish. The world would collapse if one went on strike and refused to work even for one day. Imagine a world without mechanics, electricians, carpenters, nurses, secretaries, and primary teachers all at once. It would be catastrophic.
Ultimately, men and women should be esteemed for their social contributions and evaluated based on their skills, competencies, and effort. The most qualified person should get the job, irrespective of the field. There is no question that while men and women tend to have different propensities regarding occupational choice, they have equal merits in society.
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