I will respect the differences between men and women

Daily Keys to Success

These daily excerpts from Randy Kay's book Daily Keys to Success will show you how to grow your potential while expanding your personal success to lead a life of significance. You will benefit from 365 topics with ideas, tools, and tactics for living life fully.

Jane married Joe in large part because he was the strong, silent type. Twenty years later Jane complained that Joe didn’t talk to her enough. Joe did talk when Jane shared a problem with him, but he always provided advice instead of just listening, which is all Jane wanted out of the conversation. So she felt unheard in that situation.

Sound familiar? Men and women are different—duh. Just as Joe needs to participate more in conversation, Jane needs to understand that just because Joe wants to solve her problems instead of just listening to them, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. In fact, Joe’s offer of a solution indicates that he is listening. In the 1970s, it was politically incorrect to mention sex differences. But thinking that men and women are the same ignores the needs of women and just perpetuates the male norm that has dominated society for eons. Sexual tensions still unfortunately enter into male/female relationships, both socially and to a lesser extent (because of professional conduct) in the workplace.

Men have a harder time keeping friendships with women platonic, according to a study published in Scientific American. This study showed that men attracted to women tend to assume that the woman feels the same, when she doesn’t. Females were far less attracted to their male friends in the study. So when it comes to male/female relationships, there are a lot of mixed signals. In the workplace, women tend to see problems holistically, whereas men are linear and narrower in their problem solving, says Keith Merron, a specialist in gender diversity. Both perspectives are needed. Women are better team players because of their supportive tendencies and higher level of compassion, according to a study on gender bias by a New York research group, whereas men were judged better at delegating and managing up. Which is higher in assertiveness? Surprise! According to a 2005 Caliper study, women leaders scored significantly higher than male leaders, and they were also shown as more persuasive. That’s because according to the authors, women were able to “read situations accurately and take information from all sides.” The key takeaway from our differences is that both sexes complement each other, and we need to understand this.

“A man does what he can; a woman does what a man cannot.” ~ Isabel Allende, Ines of My Soul