Culture

Are men and women hardwired for different jobs?

by Rob Peters | March 11, 2008 at 09:56 am

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Does biology determine the different ways men and women go about--or want to go about--their careers? Is Hillary Clinton an anomaly, while Donald Trump a fully-realized and prototypical man (yikes).

Writer Susan Pinker has stirred up controversy with her new book, The Sexual Paradox: Extreme Men, Gifted Women and the Real Gender Gap. She suggests that men and women are genetically predisposed to approach work differently, and that classical feminist thinking about workplace equality may be misguided.

I don't know what this says about me, but I found myself identifying with Pinker's "female" work traits--a desire for more life balance, social purpose, and empathetic work--much moreso than the supposedly male counterparts of power, politics, and achievement.

Perhaps it's another book entirely, but I'm not so sure men are perfectly suited for the corporate grind either. It's just never really discussed.

Weaving it together with personal reflections on her life as a psychologist and mother, she sets out
a carefully researched scientific discussion of how the brains of men and women are differently hardwired and influenced by their soup of hormones. The conclusion? Most men are hardwired to compete for supremacy in the workplace. Women are not. Most want a balanced life of work, family, friends and community because their biology has evolved that way.

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PEP

at 11:41 on March 11th, 2008

Welcome back to the 1950's, eh? ;}

Nah. Humans individually are hard and soft-wired differently. We each have a wide range of talents, drawbacks, and interests. Perhaps Pinker (interesting name for the topic--paging Dr. Freud!) needs to meet some female astronauts.

I don't think that the corporate grind is meant for anyone, truthfully (been there, done that).

Pinker also needs to get this: it wasn't that long ago that jobs in the newspaper were listed in different categories. Jobs for Men, Jobs for Women. Based on the same kind of hoo-ha she's writing, IMHO.

Rob Peters

at 12:11 on March 11th, 2008

I agree, making sweeping generalizations based on gender is problematic. I've only read the Globe review, not her entire book, so I'm not sure how fair I'm being, but the thrust of her argument does seem old-fashioned. Men want a lot of the same things women want, and vice versa. Like you say, it's best to take people on an individual basis.