"Come now," I suppose someone
will say, "do you expect that men should learn spinning the same as women,
and that women should take part in gymnastic exercises the same as men? "
No, that I should not demand. But
I do say that, since in the human race man's constitution is stronger and
woman's weaker, tasks should be assigned which are suited to the nature of
each; that is the heavier tasks should be given to the stronger and lighter
ones to the weaker. Thus spinning and indoor work would be more fitting for
women than for men, while gymnastics and outdoor work would be more suitable
for men.
Occasionally, however, some men
might more fittingly handle certain of the lighter tasks and what is generally
considered women's work, and again, women might do heavier tasks which seem
more appropriate for men whenever conditions of strength, need, or circumstance
warranted.
I have
listened to much debate about the corresponding strengths and weaknesses of men
and women, and what I often find is that such differences are considered as if
they were all that matters, as if they were even all that exists.
“Men are
physically tougher, and they can better focus on working through a problem!”
“Yes,
but women can put up with more hardship, and they have better instincts!”
Now even
if this is true, if each has access to a distinct set of tools, it changes
nothing about the far more fundamental humanity behind all of it. There is
reason, and there is will. There is the power to know what is true, and the
power to choose what is good. By all means, insist that I cannot understand if
I am a dog or a potted plant, but do not tell me I cannot understand if I am
tall or short, or have blonde or black hair, or am a man or a woman.
I
appreciate how Musonius thinks this question through, because he sees both the
forest and the trees, the whole and the parts, the universal and the
particular. If men and women have distinct physical or mental attributes, then
surely they will be better suited for the practice of certain skills, even as
they share in a common nature.
But such
differences can just as well exist from any one individual to another, and
there will always be exceptions. I have known a good number of women who can
wipe the floor with most men, and a good number of men who can be sensible and
grounded far better than most women. I have found that it saves me much trouble
if I don’t blindly make such assumptions to begin with. Let me see a person
first, and then learn what particular gifts that person may possess.
I was
recently fascinated when a flight surgeon explained how women, on the whole,
might possibly make better combat pilots. I have no way of knowing whether
there is any truth to it, but the very idea was interesting in itself.
He
referred to all sorts of recent studies, suggesting that the female body can
better handle the physical stresses of flying, and that the way a woman’s brain
is wired can make it easier for her to track multiple targets in her head.
When I
mentioned this to my wife, who had been raised in a military family, she saw it
right away. “We can handle giving birth, and you suffer over a hangnail. We do
twenty things at once, while you just focus on one.”
I will
bow to her wisdom in the matter!
When my
wife and I first met, we immediately had a profound sense that we were made to
work together, though we would need to learn what part each of us had to play
in that shared work. We also discovered the writings of Edith Stein together,
and her words have stuck with us over the years:
I am convinced that the species humanity embraces the double species man and woman; that the essence of the complete human being is
characterized by this duality; and that the entire structure of the essence
demonstrates the specific character. There is a difference, not only in body
structure and in particular physiological functions, but also in the entire
corporeal life. . . .
The relationship of soul and body is
different in man and woman; the relationship of soul to body differs in their
psychic life as well as that of the spiritual faculties to each other. The
feminine species expresses a unity and wholeness of the total psychosomatic
personality and a harmonious development of faculties. The masculine species
strives to enhance individual abilities in order that they may attain their
highest achievements.
Not stronger or weaker, not better or
worse, not more or less, just two different ways of coming at one and the same
thing. We are made for the same end, even as we might go about it in rather different
ways. That interplay of the parts is necessary for the fullness of the whole.
Written in 6/1999
IMAGE: USAF pilots, Rob and Beth Makros
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