Battle of the Sexes

For centuries the battle between man and woman has been a never ending subject of debate. Who is smarter, nicer, funnier and better at doing meaningless things? In the beginning it was man who ruled and woman who fought for equal rights. In present time, gender roles have shifted in work and at home where it isn’t so much about the sex anymore… or is it?

I was watching Chelsea Lately the other night (I love her) and she brought up a new study that said straight men become “stupid” around women. In fact, men’s thinking becomes impaired with even the anticipation of interacting with women. A Dutch study from Radboud University tested men and women with a lip-reading test in front of a webcam and were told that the observer was either the same or opposite sex. The test showed men performed worse when told it was a female observer straining their cognitive resources. I think it depends a lot on the personality of the man and confidence level.

Besides sexual attraction is a strong factor for men and woman, but I think for women, we have to see it to believe it.
One of the big battles between men and women is who is better at driving. Well… the most recent studies claim women are better drivers and better at parking. In an insurance study, 80% of all fatal and serious car crashes are caused by male drivers and women are 27% less likely than men to cause auto accidents. Traffic violations are higher for men in every category and men are 3 to 1 for DUI violations verses women. With the study, men incur higher insurance costs then woman. As for parking, the study was done in the UK so I can’t say it is true for Americans, however according to the study women take longer to park but were better at finding spaces and were accurate in parking in the “middle.” Granted I’ve heard this story a while back on the radio and I was telling my two male co-workers about it as I was parking for a meeting and almost hit the car next to me… oops. However, I have never claimed to be good at parking. I can’t seem to get it right ever since I got my little Juke. I suck at driving too. I’ll admit it. I guess that’s why they didn’t include me in the study.

Some other studies I ran across were men are more sexually satisfied than woman. Duh, do I really need to go into the obvious situation here? It’s a lot easier for men overall to “get off” then women. Let me tell you, it is not easy finding a man that knows what he is doing. If you do, you’re lucky, if not, training is involved. I’ll save that for a whole different blog. Men are also considered funnier than women, as Marilyn Monroe said, “if you can make a girl laugh – you can make her do anything…”

As for the workplace, sorry boys, but women are better in the leadership roles. In a focus survey, women were rated higher by their peers, bosses, direct reports and other associates as better overall leaders than men. Women outscored men in taking initiative and results. Some say it is because women have to work harder to prove themselves, which I absolutely agree with, especially in Las Vegas. Some say it’s because women have a more nurturing personality allowing co-workers to feel more comfortable. I don’t know about that, I know some women that can major …, you get the point. Even with the study it doesn’t matter in the overall structure because women still get paid about 12% less for the same job as men.

The argument will be never ending. My favorite out of them all was that women were more intuitive and empathic than men. This just proves women can find out about anything, because we recognize change in emotions and notice the little things. Men however can’t get away with anything these days especially with new resources, women were actually found to be better at technology and social media. I’m far from a feminist, I believe in equal rights and think women shouldn’t have to go further to prove themselves, if you do it right and do it will, then you really shouldn’t have to.